PWhat better way to spend a weirdly cold May weekend than at Wright, the Chicago auction house that has become the hunting ground for hot design?

For the latest in Wright's popular continuing series, "Important 20th Century Design," the inventory was so massive that the sale took place over two days. We were there, however, primarily as longtime fans of the great Gio Ponti (1891-1979, at left), and in particular to ogle the pieces from via Dezza 49, Ponti's famous residence in Milan. A major player in Italy's post-war industrial design renaissance, Ponti trained as an architect. (The Denver Art Museum, designed in 1971, is one example of his architecture in the United States.)

He was also an artist, writer, and designer of all manner of home goods.

The pieces from Via Dezza promised something special. Ponti had definite ideas about modern living and how houses should function--light and space with moveable walls. Attached to his home was his studio, a garage-size space where workers could pull up to their drafting tables on their Vespas. (The influential domus magazine, which Ponti founded in 1928, also had an office here.) While there were certainly other wonders besides Ponti's wares on the block--chairs by Hans Wegner and Jean Prouve, some very desirable steel sculptures by Isamu Noguchi--as the Ponti pieces came up, there was a palpable shift in energy: the people working the phones began really earning their pay as four out-of-town buyers quickly outbid everyone in the room.

The white 1953 Diamond sofa ($30,000-40,000 estimate, at right) went for $95,000 while the matching pair of chairs (same estimate) sold for $110,000. A small round coffee table of enameled steel (1954, see below) appraised at $25,000-30,000 went for $112,000, worn paint and all. A nearly 6-foot long customized shelf of white lacquered wood (1957) estimated at $12,000-16,000 fetched $32,000. Other pieces not from via Dezza fetched solid prices, too; for instance, a blue 1953 Distex lounge chair with its signature long arms suggesting a body in mid-stretch ($9,000-12,000 estimate) sold for $13,000. A 1947 pair of beds designed for Ambrosini Mobili ($25,000-30,000) sold for $46,000. The only non-via Dezza piece to make a huge jump was a rug made by Parentesi Quadra ($5,000-7,000) which went for $36,000.

It was puzzling that a 1950 Ponti oil on an octagon canvas (below) had no takers. With the current kooky state of the art market, and a $40,000-60,000 estimate, it seemed the steal of the bunch.

(See the Men's Vogue article on the Wright auction house and its 42-year-old founder, Richard Wright.)

--RUTH LOPEZ

Pittura da tavolo from Via Dezza 49, Italy, 1950

Pair of beds from Via Dezza 49

Custom coffee table from Via Dezza 49, enameled steel and glass