LA SHRUGGED: Alas, another chance has passed to own used furniture of impeccably peculiar West Coast pedigree, after a Seattle auction house sold a pair of Gilbert Rohde lounge chairs that were formerly the property of No-Ted author and opinionator Ayn Rand. Alas, their history apparently went unremarked, or at least value-unadded, as the two chairs sold for $468, well below a pre-sale estimate of $600-800. What lessons in the workings of capitalism are revealed herein ? Hard to say- could be that Rand fans are all broke, or uninterested, or already sitting down. Or that Objectivism fosters Luddite-ism, since both the auction and the successful buyer were on-line. Certainly the market for used Rand-icana seems a narrow one, even less populous than last fall when another set of AR's preferred seating went off at yet another West Coast sale. Way back then, Rand's long-forgotten set of 4 matched Brno chairs brought just $2500, about the price of a single identical chair purchased new today. So much for sentiment, pedigree, or other non-linear considerations: that's a fair-to-good price for that set in today's market regardless of whose buns buffed them. These are, after all, the very best-in-form-est, indubitably iconic, polished stainless flat-bar steel with leather seat and armpad, designed by Mies Van der Rohe circa 1928, produced first by Thonet, then Knoll, and arguably the epitomy of ruthless machine-for-living, I-can-buy-and-sell-you business machismo. Not to mention a staple of psychiatrists' offices, which won't be mentioned. Never soft or compassionate, forever cool chromed cantilevered killers, Mies' chairs were heralds of 20th century design. Damn comfortable as well, which they obviously, visibly should not be. The Rohde chairs shared a touch of this paradoxical charm, what with warm maple frames offset by prophylactic vinyl upholstery. Perhaps the former owner enjoyed a sense of mild design dichotomy, an innate conflict of purpose versus padding, function versus...firm ? femme ? Form ? Whatever the case, the real story is likely the house, as a more informative sale notice might have laid it out: Offering this pair of Gilbert Rohde-designed chairs owned by Ayn Rand when she lived in a Los Angeles house designed by Richard Neutra and purchased from Josef von Sternberg. Say WHAT !?! (ChOpEd by C. Harty)