40 30th June 2012 international events
paris design sales continued from page 38
Deco design. A curve-ended glass and alpaca console table and matching wall shelf and a pair of alpaca wall lights went for €370,000 (£308,335) and €260,000 (£216,670). They were followed at €240,000 (£200,000) by Eileen Gray’s Aeroplane suspension light made for her own apartment in the rue Bonaparte c.1930. But even with a much-reduced
estimate of €2-3m, Artcurial were still unable to shift Jean Dunand’s lacquered table and chairs suite designed for the apartment of Madame Vionnet that had been one of the highest-profile failures in Christie’s sale where it had appeared with a €3-5m guide. Afterwards, the auctioneers observed
that this was a piece that should undoubtedly be in a museum like the Musée des Arts Decoratifs alongside the furniture made by Rateau for Jeanne Lanvin (another illustration of the close links between the world of couture and decorative arts). “It just needs a generous patron,” they said. The selective response to the Gourdon
lots was mirrored in the auction’s other content, with around half the lots failing to get away overall. Best-seller at Pierre Bergé et
Associé’s 133-lot, June 7 auction was a classic piece of Deco by Emile-Pierre Legrain, a 6ft (1.5m) wide low table of c.1920 in oak with a parchment top and bone detailing which realised a mid-
estimate €110,000 (£91,670). Overall, though, the content leaned
more heavily toward post-War design from an international roster that took in Scandinavian and American and Italian as well as French names. Demand was highly selective here too, with just under half the lots changing hands. The other best-sellers were three
shell structures by that post-War French master of industrial materials and modular construction, Jean Prouvé. His trio of three Structures Coques (shell structures), canopied modular classrooms for schools in folded and lacquered steel with glazed panels, were made in this case for the Ecole de Dieulouard in 1952. All got away just under estimate at €45,000 (£37,500) apiece. Works by Prouvé’s contemporary
and collaborator Charlotte Perriand had less luck here, however. Four lots – two benches and two low cabinets – all made in the early 1960s for the Cité Cansade, a new town in Mauritania, failed to sell. Arguably the best-received section
was a run of 12 lots from a Parisian apartment in the Rue Blanche, a mix of late 1940s/early 50s furniture (Pierre Jeanneret), ceramics (Picasso/Georges Jouve) and 1960s lighting (Serge Mouille). All bar one of these found a buyer, mostly within what were unpushy estimates. Similar material featured in Artcurial’s
Design sale on May 15 where Prouvé and Perriand, along with Jean Jeanneret and Mouille, were much to the fore
Lalique’s fingerprints saved in lost wax
LALIQUE glass is one of those areas that has an international appeal with the best pieces selling strongly wherever they crop up. While most of Lalique’s output is mass-produced, the
designer’s cire perdue pieces are much rarer. As their name implies, each one is produced by the lost-wax casting process which makes them unique and as a result prices are generally higher for these sometimes experimental
pieces, in which the hand of the master can literally be seen in the form of his fingerprints transferred from the mould. An illustration of this could be seen at Christie’s recent
Decorative Arts and Design sale in New York on June 14 when the auctioneers offered this 10½in (27cm diameter vase of c.1930 titled Ronde d’Enfant with a circle of dancing children holding hands. The later applied chain of glass pearls that link the
children’s joined hands and other areas have plenty of evidence of Lalique’s fingerprints. Five variants of this design were created by Lalique around 1930 of which this is the last, as revealed by the 5/5 marked alongside his signature to the base. It made a mid-estimate $240,000 (£200,000). Another piece of lost-wax casting will feature in a sale
in Paris this week on June 29 at Drouot when Thierry de Maigret offer this unsigned (18cm) high trial proof statuette. Baiser du faune (Faun’s Kiss) relates to his slightly larger work of the same name classed as CP1 in Felix Marcilhac’s catalogue raisonné on Lalique. It is estimated at €40,000-50,000.
Left: Lalique cire perdue Ronde d’Enfant vase, $240,000 (£200,000) at Christie’s New York. Right: Baiser du faune cire perdue sculpture, €40,000-50,000 at Thierry de Maigret on June 29.
and provided most of the top prices in a gathering of 200-plus lots that saw a very respectable 78% take-up. Topping the bill here was a bookcase designed by Charlotte Perriand in 1959 for Serge Mouille’s personal use. The double attraction of famous maker and owner was enough to elicit €230,000 (£191,670), well in excess of the estimate. The auctioneers also featured another of Mouille’s personal works, a 1961 prototype of his own Signal lamp in lacquered steel at €120,000 (£100,000). One major disappointment among
the works from this group was the pair of doors made by Jean Prouvé for the Pavillon du Centenaire de l’Aluminium, sited on the Seine in 1953, which Sotheby’s were hoping would make in the region of €100,000-150,000 in their June 6 sale.
Above: Emile-Pierre Legrain’s wood and parchment low table that went for €110,000 (£91,670) at Pierre Bergé et Associés on June 7.
Below: this c.1960 lacquered metal wall light by Serge Mouille was part of a group of lots from a Paris apartment by various French post-War designers. It realised €6200 (£5170) at Pierre Bergé et Associés.
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