We’re willing to bet that as a Sight Unseen reader, a decent percentage of your Instagram feed is devoted to vintage dealers, whether you’re actually in the market or just need a daily adrenaline hit of killer finds (who else is addicted to thrifting alongside Monte Vision in real-time??). Post-COVID, their numbers have only multiplied, and today’s guest list-maker is an expert in their ranks: David Michon, the design scribe behind For Scale, a heady Substack in which he discusses topics like “airport terminal as home décor” and the “un-curation of domestic space,” and keeps an ever-evolving list of top-tier décor sources around the world.

Here, Michon shares his ten favorite new-gen vintage dealers, who he believes have helped evolved the art into something eminently more modern: “The en vogue approach is one that dismisses aesthetic categories, blends old and new, and embraces merch and parties (even an occasional vintner collaboration or something like that),” he says. “They care a dash less about market value and a lot more about personal points of view.”

1. Formas (Los Angeles)

(Pictured at top) “We consider Formas an exceptional gateway drug due to their highly legible combination of reverent nerdiness, personal enjoyment, and ambitions to bring it all to life outside of just selling. Plus, they just offloaded a very, very perfect Bellini 932 sofa. And, a surprise-packed showroom that boasts a very rare (and signed!) NFS Ram Simons Feltri armchair by Pesce, which is just great to see.”

2. Odd Eye NYC (New York)

“We often lament how little sexual energy is present in the representation and dealing of décor, considering how sexy décor is. Well, while not overpowering, Odd Eye is most definitely unafraid. And that is a true public service. (See, for example, their recent handling of the Anthony Kleinepier Dickie chair.) Also: very good taste in eyewear.”

3. Same Old (Los Angeles)

“For how drippingly good the Same Old showroom may be (i.e. containing the exact Gae Aulenti Jumbo coffee table that was photographed for the Knoll catalog upon its release in 1964), and for their ability to make appear very current the otherwise obsolete, you might expect pretension. If you did, you’d be sorely disappointed. Bonus points for their ongoing friendship and showroom share with L.A.’s Willett, a For Scale favorite in the ‘new furniture’ category.”

4. Spears Furnishing (Chicago)

“A hallmark of new-gen dealers is an added desire to contribute to the canon, and Spears Furnishing is doing it, with a chair and lamp designed with hometown pals Noam Atelier. We appreciate this, because it’s highly active, and nothing’s more boring than un-pierceable reverence for what was. Recent stock favorites: Roberto Pamio coffee table, a very fun reconfigurable 1970s loveseat, and a DS-600. (Another Chicago honorable mention: Carefully Picked.)”

5. Rarify (Philadelphia)

“The new Daddies: Furniture nerds and very acute businessmen in equal measure, the boys at the helm of Rarify are a far better décor nucleus, to us, than 1stDibs or DWR, in large part due to their palpable sense of mission (they are, for example, producers of a highly edifying Instagram). They are really in Lebanon, PA, but we pin them to Philly only to highlight that they’re opening a new showroom there this year.”

6. Sweeterfat (New York)

“Lots of super-condition Aalto and Pesce at Sweeterfat (particularly Pesce’s Broadway chair — definitely tippity top tier to us!), and great taste for latter-20th century plastic, and that’s truly enough for us. It then feels like a wonderful bonus that this reliable stock is peppered with the occasional off-piste mega-find, i.e. Chippendale chair in ‘grandmother’s tablecloth’ by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown for Knoll.”

7. Jeux.de.Peau (Los Angeles)

“You’ll find Jeux.de.Peau selling on Silicon Valley-y basic.space, who have seduced many a credible name to sell exclusively (i.e. Terminal 27’s Ericka del Rosario, no-introduction-needed Kelly Wearstler). But, the JdP world masters the kind of blurry, worn-warm energy that forms the bedrock of ‘Los Angeles appeal.’ We live there, we adore it, it’s captured here.”

8. Wilma (Portland)

“We’re generally very skeptical of a full-woodsy, all-brown aesthetic (domestically, or in showrooms), but a major exception is made for Wilma. A wonderful palate cleanser for the many dealers that try and out-wacko each other because that gets them IG traction (none on this list!), Wilma is a deep-breath exhale. And then, when you’ve relaxed, you realize how many quite-charming things there are: a Robert Sonneman cantilever lamp, a cactus lamp sorta thing, and some hefty round-edged oak.”

9. Somewhere Someplace (Santa Fe)

“A mélange of Brutalist and found object, aesthetics-wise, Somewhere Someplace embodies a décor skill of the absolute highest order: an ability to see things in a new light. Common among new-gen dealers, who are quick to recontextualize, but done here with exceptional aplomb, we are very easily seduced by their ‘orange crate‘ or ‘shelf rock.’ (They mix that, of course, with the more straightforward stuff.)”

10. PDA Gallery (Naples, FL)

“Oof — it’s good. It’s weird sometimes; it’s big, big names but not always the ‘go-to’ set. We’re talking Kuramata, Uchida, Svenstedt currently on the roster. There are some real bends in aesthetic persuasion at PDA Gallery, which is always a huge fucking relief — space-agey, post-modern, trad, and flowery, all atop a persian rug, and reads to us as definitively countercultural (which we mean as high praise).”