Autumn 2016
Lalique. The glassmaker’s contribution to the event was huge, including his own display that showcased his unique lost-wax creations and a six-foot-high vase, an illuminated glass ceiling for the Sèvres Pavilion and the focal structure of the exhibition park: a 50-foot- high illuminated glass fountain.
International exhibitors impressed as well. The
most forward-looking pavilion was by Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier who designed an apartment from steel, glass and concrete, which today would be instantly recognised as modernist. While the British pavilion was considered somewhat lacklustre and the Americans didn’t take part at all, there was no escaping the new design aesthetic, and both countries took the look forwards in their own ways in the years to come. ‘The French had taken art deco to its apotheosis by
1925,’ says Knowles. ‘The style was art nouveau for- malised with object elements and violent colour de- rived from the costumes of the Ballet Russe. Motifs were sunbursts, chevrons and zig zags, all paying lip- service to Cubism.’
Decoration for its own sake
went out of the window. From then on it was all about form and function.
‘But from the late 1920s and through the 1930s, there was a new approach affecting all walks of life and manner of objects. Art Moderne came from aeronau- tics, applying aviation design to trains, cars, diners and consumer goods. It was the age where land-speed re- cords were broken and the Blue Riband was awarded for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic. Decoration for its own sake went out of the window. From then on it was all about form and function.’ In 1929, the Chrysler building went up in New York with its Egyptian revival foyer – a look embraced by art deco designers after the 1922 discovery of Tut- ankhamun’s tomb, and used in the interior of many public buildings. The Empire State Building followed it in 1930 while, during that decade, America’s new consumer goods market began to pump out all man- ner of sleek, streamlined products from refrigerators to vacuum cleaners, clocks, furniture, telephones, cars and radios. It was the same story across the pond. In Britain, new buildings like the BBC’s Broadcasting House and the Daily Express Building, both in London, celebrat- ed the art deco style, along with hotels like the Mid- land in Morecambe. Art deco department stores and cinemas sprang up. The Odeon chain, which opened its first picture house in Birmingham in 1928, became famous for its art deco venues pioneered by architect Harry Weedon.
Deco at home
The look also found its way into the home in furniture, glasswares, ceramics and bronze figurines of fashion- able ladies with their bobbed hair, cloche hats, shim- my dresses and sometimes a sleek greyhound (the Deco dog of choice). ‘It was very influenced by Holly- wood,’ says Knowles. ‘America was having a profound effect on Western culture at the time through the music of Cole Porter and Gershwin, dances like the Charleston, Gatsby fashions and especially through the silver screen.’ Work of the big name furniture designers of the pe- riod, be they the French classicists like Ruhlmann and Sue et Mare or modernists like Le Corbusier and Ei- leen Gray, is these days found in museum collections and at the occasional top-end auction, with a price to match. But for those who crave a piece for their home, there was stylish well-crafted art deco furniture com- ing out of Britain, which is just as popular today. For Jeroen Markies, a specialist art deco furniture dealer and LAPADA member, the British designs have just as much appeal than those from the continent: ‘English furniture is very simple and not quite so severe. Al- though it’s very deco in appeal, the lines aren’t quite so harsh.’ An iconic example of this can be seen in the highly desirable creations of the Epstein Brothers, who were working out of London at the time – the curved edges of the cloud suite are typically English; there was nothing like them in contemporary French furniture design. The traditional English furniture company War- ing and Gillow also embraced art deco, appointing French designer Serge Chermayeff to head up its Modern Art Studio in 1930. This was the same Cher- mayeff who worked with Erich Mendelsohn to design one of Britain’s most celebrated art deco buildings, the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill.
British furniture of the period tends to use medium to light woods, such as walnut and maple, and features geometric shapes, straight lines or distinctive curves – including that ‘cloud’ shape seen in Epstein’s furni- ture. Restored versions of these cloud suites are much in demand, especially those with the wrap-around walnut back, which Jeroen Markies sells from his East Sussex shop for anything between £10,000 – £15,000. ‘Often they are very well made – generally they are burr walnut veneers over mahogany, which gives extra weight and quality,’ Markies reveals. Cocktail bars are also hot property, and can go for
anything up to £8,000. ‘The prices have probably doubled in the last five or six years,’ Markies says, ‘There’s a broader market for art deco now than there used to be. People of many different ages are inter- ested – those in their thirties and forties are buying it along with those in their fifties and sixties.’ But there are still good deals to be found if you know what to look for: ‘The things that are fantastic value for money are art deco dressing tables,’ Markies reveals. ‘They are still running at between £1,000-£1,500. You couldn’t make one for that money.’
17
All That Jazz
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192