Antiques Trade Gazette 39


Above: a single bronze and wool sheep on casters sold for at Christie’s Paris for €180,000 (£150,000).


The Lalannes’ golden fleece


THE Lalannes are on a roll. Already collected by a select coterie of


cognescenti, their work was given extra impetus by the prices it achieved in 2009 at Christie’s sale of the Yves St Laurent Collection and again when the Museum of Modern Art at the Centre Pompidou put on a retrospective of their work the next year. There is international demand that


spans Europe, the US and Asia and their quirky designs and use of materials appeals far beyond the narrow confines of decorative arts to produce headline- making results. There were plenty of examples of this sale-topping popularity on both sides of the Channel and the Atlantic in recent weeks. Sotheby’s June 6 Paris decorative arts


auction featured16 lots by Claude and Xavier-François Lalanne, among them Claude’s €1.15m (£958,330)Crocodile bronze armchair which featured on the front page of ATG No 2045. Of the other 13 which sold, none


busted estimate in quite the same way as the croc. However, Claude’s patinated bronzeWilliamsburg armchair of 1985 (one of for pieces in the sale from the suite created for the Lila Acheson Wallace Garden at Colonial Williamsburg) doubled estimate to take €120,000 (£100,000). This result was nonetheless some way


behind the £180,000 and £200,000 paid for two other Williamsburg armchairs from the same suite offered at Christie’s in London on May 3 to take the second and third highest price of the auction (see this week’s London Selection). François-Xavier Lalanne’s sheep were


cropping up in saleroons all over the place. Sotheby’s Paris were offering a family of three mid-1990s patinated bronze and epoxy stone sheep, the ram and ewe numbered 71 and 118 from editions of 250 and the lamb 58 from an edition of 500. These came in at £260,000 (£216,670) while a single sheep of the same period, numbered 113


of 250, realised €80,000 (£66,670). These were just over the pre-sale


estimate but lower than the €180,000 (£150,000) paid at Christie’s in Paris on May 31 for a single sheep of c.1994 in bronze and wool, 3ft (92cm) long, numbered 15.92 to the ear and with castors mounted on the feet. Christie’s Paris rooms pulled an even


bigger price for these Lalanne herbivores out of the hat, however. They had a ‘flock’ of five sheep in epoxy stone that they decided to place in their May 31-June 1 sale of Contemporary Art – a good illustration of the crossover appeal of these works. This quintet was produced at different dates between 1977 and 1988 from editions of 250 and sold for a double-estimate plus €680,000 (£566,670). Even that, however, is still some


way short of the ‘flock’ of ten epoxy stone and bronze sheep offered in the same auctioneers’ New York rooms last December that, at $6.6m (£4.4m), established the auction record for Lalanne. Not only did this lot feature twice the number of animals sold in Paris last month, the sheep were also all created in 1979 as a unit, each being numbered 59/25. Their New York sale on June 14 this


summer included three lots of single epoxy stone and bronze sheep made in the 1980s from editions of 250. Two realised $95,000 (£63,335) and one $110,000 (£73,335). Artcurial also featured a half a


Above: a Pigeon lamp in bronze and glass by François-Xavier Lalanne (€15,000/£12,500) set on top on one of a pair of occasional tables by Claude Lalanne from c.1980 (€12,000/£10,000) and a clay Cocotte flower pot (unsold) by François-Xavier, all Artcurial limited editions, that featured in Artcurial’s May 15 Design sale.


dozen Lalanne works in their May 15 their Design auction. They included a c.1990 bronze and copper 2ft 7in (80cm) vegetal candelabra by Claude at €52,000 (£43,335) and a François-Xavier Pigeon lamp from 1991 (an Artcurial edition in brass, patinated bronze and opaline glass), which realised €15,000 (£12,500). Another 1991 edition Pigeon


numbered 382 appeared at Cornette de Saint Cyr’s Design sale on June 11 where it realised €23,500 (£19,585).


Above: a flock of three François-Xavier Lalanne sheep in epoxy stone and bronze sold at Sotheby’s Paris for £260,000 (£216,670).


Above: a flock of five epoxy stone and bronze sheep sold at Christie’s Paris for €680,000 (£566,670).


Animal attraction spreads wider than the Lalannes. Sotheby’s sale featured some 1970s bronze furnishings created by Diego Giacometti that had been acquired by the vendor direct from the artist.


A small 23in (59cm) wide glass-shelved low table Aux Grenouilles featuring supports topped by seated frogs realised a double estimate €105,000 (£87,500), while this 11in (29cm) high bronze Chat Maitre d’Hotel similarly doubled hopes at €48,000 (£40,000).


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