Journal — stories, guides and edits

Journal

Designer research, curator edits, rooms in progress and plain answers about bidding. Every story points at something you can actually see at Mission Road.

Mosaic clad concrete outdoor dining table with matching bench and two stools in terracotta, cream and brown tesserae

The Circa Edit

The Modernist Garden: 12 Pieces We Would Live With

Twelve lots from Escape to the Modernist Garden, chosen for what they do to a real terrace rather than for what they would fetch.

Circa Editorial · September 3, 2026 · 4 min

Designer Stories

Profiles, timelines and buying guides for the designers whose work comes through Mission Road.

All in Designer Stories

Designer Stories
Mathieu Matégot and the Poetry of Perforated Metal
He folded punched sheet steel as if it were cloth, gave the technique a name in 1952, and then left furniture entirely for tapestry.
August 18, 2026 · 3 min
Designer Stories
Roger Capron: Ceramics Made for Architecture
Capron did not decorate furniture with tiles. He built furniture out of a tile industry, in a Vallauris factory that at its peak employed 120 people.
August 16, 2026 · 3 min
Designer Stories
Charlotte Perriand at Les Arcs: What Collectors Look For
Pine benches from an alpine resort, an oak fireside chair from a hotel that no longer has its interiors, and a bench designed for a Mauritanian mining town. Three levels of the same market.
August 13, 2026 · 4 min

The Circa Edit

Curators, designers and dealers pick their lots from the sale on the block.

All in The Circa Edit

Low modernist bench and stools in front of an abstract painting on the Mission Road showroom floor

The Circa Edit

The Circa Edit: 10 Lots for a Los Angeles House

Our specialists pick ten lots from the current sale against a brief every designer in this city recognises: hard light, open plan, doors that stay open.

Circa Editorial · September 4, 2026 · 4 min

Rooms & Projects

Five to ten pieces chosen for one space — scale, material and light considered together.

All in Rooms & Projects

Rooms & Projects
Five Dining Sets for a California House
Five complete sets in the current sale, from a mosaic table with its original bench to a Brown Jordan suite that can stay outside all year.
September 1, 2026 · 4 min
Rooms & Projects
Under $2,500: Where Collecting Modern Design Can Start
Eight lots in the current sale with a high estimate at or below $2,500, each of them by a designer with a documented body of work.
August 31, 2026 · 3 min
Rooms & Projects
Pairs, Sets and Multiples: The Designer's Shortcut
Sourcing six matching chairs takes months. Buying them as one lot takes one bid. Why the trade watches the multiples first.
August 30, 2026 · 3 min

Client Stories

Interior designers, developers and collectors on how they buy, what they keep, and where the objects end up.

All in Client Stories

Charles and Ray Eames lounge chair and ottoman in black leather on moulded plywood shells

Client Stories

Philippe Naouri: Restoring the House Before the Furniture

A Marseille denim designer turned Los Angeles developer who rebuilds mid-century houses from the architect's own drawings, then furnishes them at the same scale. The first of our stories on the people who live with the objects.

Circa Editorial · September 5, 2026 · 4 min

Field Notes

Sourcing trips, provenance, materials and the restoration bench.

All in Field Notes

Field Notes
From Provence to Mission Road: How Circa Sources
294 of the 349 lots in the current sale record France as their provenance. What that means in practice, and what it does not mean.
September 2, 2026 · 3 min
Field Notes
French Modernism in Los Angeles: Why It Works
Oak, pine, rope, perforated steel and ceramic were developed for a climate and a way of living that Los Angeles happens to share.
August 27, 2026 · 4 min

Auction Intelligence

How estimates, condition, increments and premiums actually work before you raise a paddle.

All in Auction Intelligence

Auction Intelligence
After the Hammer: How Pickup and Shipping Work at Circa
Invoices in 72 hours, collection within 10 days, storage at $25 per lot per day after that, and no packing or shipping from Circa. Plan it before you bid.
September 5, 2026 · 3 min
Auction Intelligence
Patina Is Not Damage: How to Read Outdoor Modernism
Circa's condition language for garden lots is deliberately blunt. Here is what it means, what it does not mean, and where the real problems hide.
August 25, 2026 · 4 min
Auction Intelligence
A Designer's Guide to Dimensions, Scale and Auction Measurements
What each measurement on a Circa lot page means, which ones the catalog does not give you, and how to convert quickly when the client's plan is metric.
August 23, 2026 · 4 min

Designers in the Journal

The designers our stories return to, with what is live in the current sales.

All designers

Willy Guhl
1915–2004
Swiss designer whose radical use of fiber cement turned an industrial material into some of the most sculptural outdoor furniture of the postwar era.
1,025 past results
Charlotte Perriand
1903–1999
French designer who moved modernism from tubular steel to pine and rope, and furnished an entire alpine resort along the way.
155 past results
Roger Capron
1922–2006
Vallauris ceramist who pressed tile into furniture, making coffee tables whose tops are glazed and fired rather than veneered.
96 past results
Jacques Adnet
1900–1984
French decorator who wrapped brass and glass structures in saddle-stitched leather, giving modernism a hand and a texture it had not had.
5 past results
René Gabriel
1899–1950
French designer who spent the postwar years making decent oak furniture for people who had lost everything, and taught much of the next generation.
4 past results
Pierre Guariche
1926–1995
French designer who worked the industrial end of postwar modernism, turning bent plywood and thin steel into furniture and lighting made to be affordable.
17 past results

From the last sale

What we wrote while the catalogue was open.

Browse 349 lots

Auction Intelligence
After the Hammer: How Pickup and Shipping Work at Circa
Invoices in 72 hours, collection within 10 days, storage at $25 per lot per day after that, and no packing or shipping from Circa. Plan it before you bid.
September 5, 2026 · 3 min
Client Stories
Philippe Naouri: Restoring the House Before the Furniture
A Marseille denim designer turned Los Angeles developer who rebuilds mid-century houses from the architect's own drawings, then furnishes them at the same scale. The first of our stories on the people who live with the objects.
September 5, 2026 · 4 min
The Circa Edit
The Circa Edit: 10 Lots for a Los Angeles House
Our specialists pick ten lots from the current sale against a brief every designer in this city recognises: hard light, open plan, doors that stay open.
September 4, 2026 · 4 min

Read what you care about

New works by designers you follow, previews in your categories, and the occasional field note.

Featured story

The Modernist Garden: 12 Pieces We Would Live With

The people behind the objects.

Mathieu Matégot and the Poetry of Perforated Metal

Roger Capron: Ceramics Made for Architecture

Charlotte Perriand at Les Arcs: What Collectors Look For

Ten things worth your attention.

The Circa Edit: 10 Lots for a Los Angeles House

Objects, seen in a room.

Five Dining Sets for a California House

Under $2,500: Where Collecting Modern Design Can Start

Pairs, Sets and Multiples: The Designer's Shortcut

The people who live with it.

Philippe Naouri: Restoring the House Before the Furniture

How the work gets found.

From Provence to Mission Road: How Circa Sources

French Modernism in Los Angeles: Why It Works

Bidding, explained without mystique.

After the Hammer: How Pickup and Shipping Work at Circa

Patina Is Not Damage: How to Read Outdoor Modernism

A Designer's Guide to Dimensions, Scale and Auction Measurements

Written about, and available now.

Willy Guhl

Charlotte Perriand

Roger Capron

Jacques Adnet

René Gabriel

Pierre Guariche

Escape to the Modernist Garden

After the Hammer: How Pickup and Shipping Work at Circa

Philippe Naouri: Restoring the House Before the Furniture

The Circa Edit: 10 Lots for a Los Angeles House

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