Sometimes when I’m furniture shopping (or just furniture browsing, which is most of the time), I come across something so lovely that I’m moved to turn over the price tag and see how much it costs. Then I usually raise my eyebrows and gently turn the tag back over, being careful not to bump the item itself, because I couldn’t afford to pay for it if some accident were to happen. Then my spouse usually asks how much it was, and I answer, “It was about a million dollars.”
My overstatements notwithstanding, sometimes a piece is so glorious that I can actually imagine it’s worth a million dollars. Granted, these pieces are usually found at museums and fancy galleries, never at the local Room Store. But apparently, the lower half of this marvelous cabinet was being used in a pizza restaurant in North Yorkshire.
Now, I don’t know what kind of pizzas they sell in Yorkshire, but this is far fancier than anything I’ve seen at Pizza Hut or California Kitchen. I mean, look at it! It’s a work of art! Still, the base was missing for many years until someone tipped off the owner of Sotheby’s to its whereabouts. He then ventured to North Yorkshire and saw the piece for himself. The rest is history, and the 17th century cabinet - once given as a gift by Pope Clement IX - was auctioned off for a cool £1,084,500 on Tuesday.
That price makes me a little nervous just thinking about it. Therefore, I’ll direct your attention to some more reasonably priced pieces. None of them were probably given as gifts by a pope, but it’s a crazy world, so you never know. Choose some nice office furnishings or hotel seating for your UK business. I understand that your standards for furniture might be higher if you run a pizza restaurant in North Yorkshire, but I do the best I can.
