The Art Newspaper

June proves patchy for design sales

Collectors hold out for Design Miami Basel fair, but rebound for later auctions at Wright

By Brook S. Mason. Web only
Published online: 25 June 2010

Francois-Xavier Lalanne's Chat Polymorphe brass bar failed to sell

NEW YORK. Collectors holding out for the tenth annual Design Miami Basel featuring the cream of the crop offerings made for slack results at the early June round of 20th-century design auctions.

The softening of sales set in as early as the Windy City Wright 8 June auction. At that sale, Wright hammered down $1,838,271 (est $3m-$4.3m) with 56.7% sold by lot and 50.4% sold by value.

Even so, a Le Corbusier concrete light fixture from Chandigarh Zoo, 1960 made $36,500 ($20,000-$25,000). But a cache of Pierre Jeanneret furniture had weak results with a Chandigarh library table, 1960 (est $100,000-$120,000) passing.

Then Phillips, de Pury & Company 9 June auction brought in $4.9m (est $5.2m-$7.4m). Sell rates were 67 percent by lot and 72 percent by value. Particularly telling was the cover lot, Marc Newson’s aluminum Pod of drawers, 1987 from the Halsey Minor collection going to an anonymous telephone bidder in a near empty auction room for $350,000 ($300,000-$500,000). Too much Newson was on the market. Surprisingly vessels by English ceramicists Lucie Rie and Hans Coper sparked strong prices. Rie's hand wrought Large Bowl (est. $14,000-18,000) jumped to $74,500.

Sotheby’s 16 June auction managed a respectable $5,133,812 (est $4.2m-$6.3m). Driving those results with 67.3% sold by lot; 78% sold by value was Sotheby’s prescient emphasis on Tiffany Studios glass, which is more stable than modern design. Tiffany Studios examples claimed seven of the top ten, including a Dragonfly table lamp from around 1898 making $554,500 ($300,000-$500,000).

Then Christie’s 18 June sale reaped $5,853,100 (est $5.2m-$7.5m). High points included Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann Lasalle, a burl walnut commode, 1925, which had been made for the Manhattan department store B. Altman going for $614,500 (est $150,000-$200,000). Both Francois-Xavier Lalanne monumental brass bar, 1968 (est $500,000-$700,000) and Jean Dupas set of 13 eglomisé panels from the S.S. Normandie (est $300,000-$500,000) failed to sell. “The Lalanne had everything: condition, provenance. The scale was the only if,” said Josh Holderman, Christie’s specialist referring to its ten feet length. “A lot of people who are buyers were in Basel so their attention may not have been 100%,” he said.

The market rebounded with Wright hammering down a private Paris collection on 24 June bringing in $1,252,144 (est $838,500) (93% sold by lot; 91% by value). Even routine Vladimir Kagan upholstered furniture like a 1955 Serpentine sofa more than doubled its low estimate and made $26,500. “Style won the day, the collection was sublime and fresh,” said Richard Wright. “Buyers responded.”