A life in objects, with LA antique dealer Joel Chen

Los Angeles is full of people buying and selling furniture and decorative arts. But one of the most respected - and incurable - is Joel Chen.

JF Chen contains a huge and eclectic collection of carefully chosen and carefully staged chairs, tables, sofas, armoires, sculptures and odd artifacts encompassing painted Italian, English Regency and midcentury modern. In Chen’s words he has “dabbled in 30s, 40s, 50s and all the way to the 80s,” becoming along the way a leading collector of Memphis designer Ettore Sottsass.

Christie’s auction house. Among the objects to go on the auction block: a Sam Maloof rocking chair, an 18th century Chinese blue and white ‘Lotus’ vase, a Carlo Mollino chair, a desk lamp by Greta Magnusson Grossman and two vases by Sottsass.

Inside JF Chen’s showroom on Highland Avenue. Photo by Frances Anderton.