NEW YORK, NY.- Christie’s announced The Spirit of Paris: An Important Private Collection of 1920s & 1930s Design, a live Design auction taking place at Rockefeller Center on 6 June 2022. Assembled with great discernment, the collection features rare furniture and objets d’art that illustrate the creative and cultural vivacity of Paris in the Twenties and Thirties.
At the time, Paris led the world in every facet of the fine and applied arts, and became the most cosmopolitan of cities, attracting talents and many visitors from abroad, all eager to savor the atmosphere, experiences, and luxury that the city promised. Paris drew leading personalities of the art, fashion, music, performance, and design, generating a new dynamism and cultural vibrancy, demonstrated by the prestigious provenances featured in this collection, such as Jacques Doucet, Elsa Schiaparelli, or the Maharaja of Indore. A highlight of the collection is a striking carpet of Cubist design by Ivan Da Silva Bruhns for the Maharaja of Indore and his modernist palace Manik Bagh (estimate $500,000-700,000).
Sonja Ganne, Chairman, Design, Christie’s Paris, comments: “From the first acquisitions more than 20 years ago, the collection reveals a focused quest for the highest sophistication of French Art Deco. Embodied by the richness of extremely refined materials such as shagreen, vellum, mica, lacquer, rock crystal, straw marquetery, Makassar ebony, as well as the sleek elegance of carved oak, it shows strong cohesion, revealing a profound understanding, connoisseurship and true love for an aesthetic that speaks as much of amazing creativity and luxury, as of modernity. It tells us about a certain art de vivre that prevailed in Paris for a short period of ten years, yet still remains unique and unequalled.”
French Art Deco masters are represented by Jean Dunand, with his dinanderie vases and lacquer work, André Groult and Marcel Coard, with their precious shagreen and macassar ebony creations, and Armand Albert Rateau with sophisticated bronze objects. The sale also showcases a spectacular ensemble of rare boxes, vanity and cigarette cases by Paul Brandt, Jean Fouquet, Gérard Sandoz, Raymond Templier, and Jean Goulden that demonstrate a uniquely French flair in works of great refinement.
The collection includes rare examples of 1930s Design with a unique selection of furniture, lighting and objects by Alberto Giacometti, Jean-Michel Frank and Salvador Dalí, which defined a new sense of luxury through elegant minimalism. Among the fantastic works by Jean-Michel Frank is an exceptional straw marquetry cabinet from 1925 (estimate: $500,000 – 700,000) and a stunning mica low table (estimate: $300,000-500,000). Highlights by Alberto Giacometti include the ‘Flambeau’, ‘Bilboquet’ and ‘Grecque’ table lamps (each estimated at $200,000 – 300,000).
