PARIS.- The 180-lot sale of 20th Century Decorative Arts & Design at
Sotheby’s Paris on May 22 will offer a large range of works selected for their quality, prestigious provenance and importance to the history of Decorative Arts since 1900. Emile Gallé, Louis Majorelle, Rembrandt Bugatti, Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, Jean Royère, Dominique, Diego Giacometti and Jean Prouvé are among the celebrated designers featured, while the sale also includes furniture by such major 20 th century creators as Alberto Giacometti, Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne, Antonio Saura, Alexander Calder, Philolaos and Arman.
A Private Collection of Gallé Glassware
A fascinating Italian private collection, assembled between 1960 and 1980, showcases the genius of Emile Gallé – the ‘magician of fire and evoker of dreams.’
The 40-piece ensemble captures the appeal of Art Nouveau through a variety of stylized and Nature-based designs, ‘study pieces,’ and vases with powdered inclusions or acid-etched decoration. These items in coloured, frosted, opaque or transparent glass, embellished with flowers, delicate spiders or translucent jelly-fish, are the fruit of the unquenchable inspiration which Gallé – a passionate botanist and convinced symbolist – derived from Nature and his desire for everyone to appreciate the ‘language of flowers and silent things.’
Highlights include a glass marquetry vase (1900) with flower patterning (est. €40,000-60,000/ $55,500-83,000) and a dichroic glass Medusa vase with powdered inclusions (est. €12,000- 18,000/ $16,600-24,900).
The Art Nouveau section also features rare works by the period’s finest designers, including an exceptional Orchid sofa by Louis Majorelle (c.1903) that has remained in the same collection for over thirty years (est. €10,000-15,000/ $13,800- 20,700).
The sale’s Art Deco section will feature rare works by such leading names as André Groult, Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Süe & Mare, Jean Goulden, Jean Dunand and Jean-Michel Frank. There will be an eight-piece ensemble by Dominique from the same collection, with a parchment-lined collector’s cabinet dating from around 1930 (est. €12,000-15,000/ $16,600- 20,700).
A Rembrandt Bugatti iron sculpture of a Male Jabiru (c.1912), one of just six known cire perdue castings by Hébrard – a founder reputed for precision and skilful patinas (est. €50,000- 70,000/ $69,00 – 97,000).
Another important sculpture is a bronze Torso (one from an edition of eight) with brown-green patina by Chana Orloff, an artist increasingly sought-after on the market (est. €70,000- 100,000/ $97,000-138,000).
A unique 1921 fire-screen by Jean Dunand & Jean Goulden, entitled Le Monastère des 40 mystères , (The Monastery of 40 Mysteries), has been kept in the family of Madame Jean Goulden until today (est. €50,000-70,000/ $69,000-97,000).
After the success of works by Joseph Csaky at the sale of the Félix Marcilhac Collection in March, his Anubis (‘dog's head’) marble sculpture (c.1924), formerly owned by Marcel Coard and Michel Périnet, is expected to bring €40,000- 60,000/ $55,500-83,000.
A Grande Feuille floor-lamp by Alberto Giacometti designed in 1933/4, then installed by Paul Dupré-Lafon in Dr André Jaubert’s Sainte-Maxime holiday home in 1937, has remained in the Jaubert family ever since (est. €100,000-150,000/ $138,000-207,000).
The section covering the 1940s To the Present will include works by André Arbus, Serge Roche, Jules Leleu, Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, Jacques Adnet, Marc du Plantier, Maria Pergay, André Dubreuil and Zaha Hadid.
Although suites by Jean Royère regularly appear on the market, it is rare for to find his chaises longues in the saleroom. Sotheby’s will be offering an exceptional model in beaten iron (c.1950) upholstered in petrol blue velvet (est. €50,000-70,000/ $69,000- 97,000).
Dating from a little later are an aluminium lamp 6ft 8in (2.03m) tall, designed by Serge Mouille in 1963 (est. €60,000-80,000/ $83,000- 111,000); and a large, illuminated reading-table commissioned from Pierre Jeanneret by Punjab University in Chandigarh, and made between 1964-66 (est. €80,000-120,000/ $111,000-166,000).
Unique pieces include a pair of three-armed wall-lights featuring an owl by Diego Giacometti (1968), one of just two versions known (est. €140,000-180,000/ $194,000- 249,000); and a talosel Toupie sculpture by Line Vautrin (c.1970) that was acquired directly from the artist (est. €10,000-15,000/ $13,800-20,700).
The sale also boasts an important selection of pieces by masters of Scandinavian design, notably Gerrit Thomas Rietveld, Axel Salto and Poul Henningsen.
Bernard Minoret Collection
Marie-Laure de Noailles, Hélène Rochas, Leonor Fini, Jean & Valentine Hugo, Lise Deharme, Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar… Bernard Minoret played host to all these figures of the Café Society dear to Philippe Jullian, doubtless over drinks around his Diego Giacometti coffee-table (est. €80,000-120,000) / $111,000- 166,000) . The portraits, sketches, paintings, photographs and bronzes on Minoret’s walls and bookshelves were more than mere works of art: they bore witness to the friendship of all those who helped him perpetuate the spirit of the 18 th century Salon, which Minoret (together with Claude Arnaud) evoked so tellingly on the stage.
Artists’ Furniture
For the first time at Sotheby’s Paris, a sale of 20th Century Decorative Arts & Design will include a dozen unique items of furniture designed by famous artists – highlighting the narrow divide between Art and Design. The ensemble features such major names as Alberto & Diego Giacometti, Claude & François-Xavier Lalanne, Antonio Saura, Alexander Calder, Philolaos and Arman. Each object comes from a limited edition and has its own special poetry – like a mosaic-glass table by Niki de Saint-Phalle that epitomizes her colourful, dream-like world (est. €25,000-35,000/ $34,500-48,300), or an Arman console-table whose single-leg support is formed by a conglomerate of interlocking cellos and saxophones set in bronze (est. €30,000-40,000/ $41,400-55,500).
