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.
A dining set that has stayed together is worth more than the sum of its parts and is much harder to find than a good table. Escape to the Modernist Garden has an unusual number of intact sets, indoor and outdoor. These are the five we would put in a house here, and what each one asks of the room.
1. Lot 2, mosaic outdoor dining set
Table, bench and two stools, all surfaced in the same hand-set mosaic in terracotta, cream and brown. The table is 79 by 39 inches at a 28-inch height; the bench is 67 inches with a 16.5-inch seat. Estimate $7,000 to $10,500, the highest in this group and the correct price for a complete four-part ensemble that was tiled as one object.
It needs a hard, level surface and it needs to stay there. This is a set you place once.
2. Lot 344, black mosaic dining set
A round 39.5-inch table with a curved bench and a stool, in black tile shot through with yellow and red shards. The bench runs to 200 inches, which is the reason this set works on a curved terrace and does not work in a rectangular courtyard. Estimate $5,000 to $7,500. The catalog notes losses and weathering consistent with age, which is normal for mosaic and is where the negotiation on condition sits.
3. Lot 9, faux bois outdoor dining set
Table and four matching armchairs in textured concrete moulded to imitate bark, with remnants of the original colouring still in the surface. The table is 60 inches long at 29 inches high; the chairs sit at 17 inches. Estimate $3,000 to $4,500.
Faux bois is the most Californian material in the sale by association, because the technique arrived in American parks and gardens at exactly the moment this city was building its outdoor rooms. It is also the heaviest set here.
4. Lot 336, Brown Jordan Florentine wrought iron suite
A round glass-top dining table, four armchairs with woven strap seats and a pair of adjustable chaise lounges on wheels, with the original striped cushions. Estimate $1,600 to $2,400 for the whole suite, which is the value proposition in this sale.
Painted wrought iron is the only outdoor material here that one person can rearrange, and the chaises turn a dining terrace into a pool terrace without a second purchase.
5. Lot 340, Silvio Coppola dining table with four chairs
The indoor option. An extendable round table in dark-stained wood, 47 inches closed and 65 extended, with four matching chairs at a 17-inch seat height. Estimate $2,400 to $3,600.
An extending round table is the single most useful piece of furniture in a house that entertains irregularly, and matched period chairs at this price are rarer than the table.
Choosing between them
Ask three questions in order. Does the set stay outside permanently, and if so, is the surface glazed, cast or painted metal. Is the terrace rectangular or curved, because the two mosaic sets answer that differently. And can it be moved by the people who will actually be moving it, which rules out both concrete sets for most houses without a side gate.
If none of the complete sets fits, the sale also allows the older approach: buy the table and the chairs separately. Lot 39, a brutalist wood dining table, and lot 84, a set of six Charles Dudouyt ladder back chairs with rush seats, make a better room together than either does alone.
All five can be seen at 249 South Mission Road during preview. Pickup is within 10 days and Circa does not pack or ship, so plan the collection of a concrete set before Saturday.
