NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips de Pury & Company announces its spring Design auction to be held at 450 Park Avenue on May 25. The auction comprises 176 lots of 20th century and contemporary design, on view to the public at 450 Park Avenue from May 19 to May 24.
INTERNATIONAL CERAMICS
The sale will include a large group of British, American and Japanese ceramics by 20th-century masters and contemporary potters. Works include porcelain and stoneware vessels by British studio greats Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, friends and former colleagues, whose concurrent careers represent a crowning achievement in 20th-century ceramics.
The auction will also include postwar and contemporary Japanese ceramic sculpture by renowned artists Sueharu Fukami, Osamu Suzuki and Kazuo Yagi, among others. By turning away from canonical forms—tea-ware, rice cups, bowls—these ceramicists questioned the functionality of pots and subordinated craft to art.
Throughout his broad career, seminal Italian designer Ettore Sottsass worked across many categories including furniture, glass, and ceramics. Phillips de Pury & Company will offer a single-owner group of early ceramics by Sottsass dating from the 1960s.
RARE RATEAU MIRROR
Phillips de Pury & Company continues to offer important works of 20th century French decorative arts including works by Jean Royère, Jean Prouvé, and Charlotte Perriand. In addition, the auction will include a Rare hand mirror, ca. 1925, by Art Deco master Armand Albert Rateau. The mirror, with an estimate of $15,000 to $20,000, is one of only a very few examples of this model known to exist, one of which is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The other belonged to Florence Blumenthal, an early supporter of Rateau, and was sold in 2005, the last time this model appeared at auction.
HARRY BERTOIA
Designer, sculptor, and graphic artist, Harry Bertoia fit the definition of a polymath. From an early age he devoted himself to art and design. The chairs he produced for Knoll in the 1950s continue to be among that firm’s best sellers. After the 1950s, however, Bertoia never returned to furniture production but concentrated instead on unique abstract constructions in steel, brass, bronze and copper. On May 25th Phillips de Pury & Company will offer two “Sonambient” souding sculptures ($70,000 to $90,000 and $120,000 to $180,000) and a “Dandelion” sculpture ($150,000 to $200,000) from the 1960s and 1970s.
NENDO’S CABBAGE CHAIR
Prolific Japanese design firm Nendo, headed by founder Oki Sato, has had a busy decade. Nendo has excelled in architecture, interior design, furniture production and graphics. Phillips de Pury & Company will offer Nendo’s now iconic “Cabbage Chair”, ca. 2008, with an estimate of $12,000 to $18,000. Originally designed for an exhibition curated by fashion designer Issey Miyake, “Cabbage Chair” is now in the permanent collections of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Cooper-Hewitt, and the Museum of Arts and Design, as well as the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
Top Ten Lots
• Harry Bertoia, “Dandelion” sculpture, 1960s estimated at $150,000 to $200,000.
• Harry Bertoia, “Sonambient” sounding sculpture, ca. 1970 estimated at $120,000 to $180,000.
• Isamu Noguchi, “Wind Catcher”, 1983 estimated at $80,000 to $100,000.
• Ron Arad, “Light table”, 1990s estimated at $80,000 to $100,000.
• Harry Bertoia, “Sonambient” sounding sculpture, 1978, estimated at $70,000 to $90,000.
• Adolf Loos, Unique monumental bookcase, ca. 1905 estimated at $60,000 to $90,000.
• Amanda Levete and Future Systems, “Drift” bench, ca. 2006 estimated at $60,000 to $80,000.
• Matali Crasset, Set of eight “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend I” wall lights, ca. 2008 estimated at $55,000 to $65,000.
• Serge Mouille, Large three-arm wall light, 1950s estimated at $50,000 to $70,000.
• Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé, Free-form coffee table, ca. 1956 estimated at $45,000 to $55,000.
