May 2009
Building on the success of the recent April London Design sale, Phillips de Pury & Company is pleased to announce the highlights from its New York Design sale.
128 lots will be offered with a total pre-sale estimate of $2,729,300 – 3,677,000.
This sale offers an array of highly select works with a focus on rare and important examples from eminent 20th and 21st Century designers.
The Design department has broadened its collecting categories to integrate key areas such as Contemporary Ceramics, Italian Glass and Artist’s Jewelry.
Alexander Payne, Worldwide Director of Design, Phillips de Pury & Company: “We are proud to follow-up our strong sale in London with the New York sale which sets out to offer the best of the best."
"In this market on both sides of the Atlantic, the demand is for exceptional, hard to find works. This sale meets the criteria.”
Phillips de Pury & Company will present career defining works by heavyweights Jean Royère, Jean Prouvé, Claude Lalanne and George Nakashima. Important American Studio works from the collection of Dr. Alfred L. Jones debut on the secondary market.
Jean Royère’s Ours Polaire sofa, ca. 1950, estimated at $180,000 to 220,000, takes its cue from a slumbering polar bear’s round shape and exemplifies the designer’s surrealist sense of humor.
Other examples of Ours Polaire sofas have consistently achieved the highest prices among all of Royère’s work on the secondary market.
The recent Phillips de Pury & Company London Design sale in April sold an important Royère armchair for £94,850, over twice the high estimate amount, along with a pair of his Bouquet wall lights, the Fondperdue floor lamp and a coffee table, confirming that this pioneering master’s market continues to thrive.
Jean Prouvé’s Trapèze table exemplifies his legendary use of sheet metal cantilevered by internal load-bearing supports.
It was commissioned and built in the late 1950s for the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (C.E.A.), a French government-funded defense and energy research organization.
Prouvé created fifteen known examples of this table in seven variations for the C.E.A. The pre-sale estimate for Trapèze is $150,000 to 200,000.
A designer of furniture, sculpture and jewelry with surrealist inclinations, Claude Lalanne first created her whimsical Grains de Café side chairs, ca. 1965, for Olivier de La Baume, director of the French coffee company Maison du Café.
The twelve chairs, estimated at $180,000 to 220,000, are supported by curvilinear brass and steel frames and are fitted with leather pads styled in playful homage to the coffee bean.
The Centre Pompidou included a Grains de Café chair in its 2004 exhibition, Mobilier national 1964-2004: 40 ans de creation.
George Nakashima’s Monumental “Conoid” dining table was designed in 1989, just one year prior to his death. Nakashima’s career crested during his twilight years, and this Conoid table, estimated at $150,000 to 200,000, is an example of his finest work, featuring 15 of his signature rosewood keys which anchor the walnut boards and natural surface fissures. This table will be sold accompanied by its original drawing.
Phillips de Pury & Company will introduce to the market significant, custom-built works by Paul Evans and Phillip Lloyd Powell, two American Studio designers from New Hope, PA who frequently collaborated on commissions.
In the 1960s, the artists designed several pieces for the private Manhattan residence of Dr. Alfred L. Jones. Paul Evans designed his Unique custom-made illuminated cabinet bar, ca. 1963, estimated at $80,000 to 120,000, for Dr. Jones’s wine collection.
Evans was well known for using multiple materials and techniques within a single piece and this cabinet bar, with its varied treatment of steel, wood, gold leaf and bronze, is a testament to his distinctive handiwork.
Additional highlights include an important and rare table by Pierre Jeanneret for Le Corbusier, a pair of lamps by Alberto Giacometti, and a Bush sculpture by Harry Bertoia, which join the offering of seminal Mid-Century works.
Italian design from the 1960s and 70s makes a strong appearance with works by Joe Colombo, Gabriella Crespi, Ettore Sottsass, Gino Sarfatti and Angelo Mangiarotti.
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