PARIS.- The next sale of 20th Century Decorative Arts & Design at Sotheby’s France will take place on 25 November 2014. It will feature a selection of emblematic pieces and remarkable ensembles from private collections – two of them devoted to those Giants of Decorative arts, Jean-Michel Frank and Jean Royère. The sale also features 14 pieces by legendary Design couple François-Xavier & Claude Lalanne.

Alongside such masterpieces, the sale features creations by such leading names of Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Post-War and Contemporary Design with Scandinavian and Italian furniture, as Rembrandt Bugatti, Emile Gallé, Alphonse Mucha, Paul Iribe, Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann, Gustave Miklos, Pierre Legrain, Line Vautrin, Charlotte Perriand, Shiro Kuramata, Maria Pergay or Ron Arad. Such eclecticism is sure to delight specialist collectors.

Jean-Michel Frank: Private Collection
Jean-Michel Frank takes centre-stage with eight pieces of furniture from the collection of Helen Lansdowne Resor – legendary Advertising Executive with J. Walter Thompson and pioneer of advertising in the United States. The ensemble is minutely documented by letters exchanged between Mrs Resor and Frank 1935-37, revealing the importance of these commissions.

Frank’s inimitably refined and visionary style is captured by a cabinet with radiating straw marquetry (c.1935) that comes with an estimate of €200,000-300,000 / $254,000-380,000. Other highlights here include a splendid Infinity vase by Alberto Giacometti, previously known only through a version made from plaster. This vase catches the eye with its colour of deep, almost unreal green. Giacometti wrote that he ‘was working on a vase exactly as I would on a sculpture’ (est. €70,000-100,000 / $89,000-127,000).

Jean Royère: An Original Ensemble Of 21 Works
An exceptional, hitherto unknown ensemble of furniture by Jean Royère, conserved in situ for many decades by its owners in north-east France, features iconic works by one of the 20th century’s greatest decorators. Royère’s creative fantasy and humour course through 21 lots of stunning quality and variety, which include a pair of 1954 Diabolo wall-lights (est. €8,000-12,000 / $10,200-15,200); a pair of Polar Bear armchairs (est. €100,000-150,000 / $127,000-190,000); a Polar Bear sofa (est. €180,000-220,000 / $228,000-279,000); and a 1954 coffee-table (est. €30,000-60,000 / $38,000-76,000) jokily entitled Flaque (Puddle) or Semelle (Shoe Sole).

14 Works By François-Xavier & Claude Lalanne
The sale also features fourteen pieces by François-Xavier & Claude Lalanne that will delight admirers of this creative duo. Works include a flock of black-patinated bronze and epoxy Sheep by François-Xavier Lalanne (est. €180,000-250,000 / $228,000-317,000) and a magical Banbiloba II bench by his wife Claude Lalanne (est. €80,000-100,000 / $102,000-127,000). Aesthetes will also be tempted by her imposingly voluptuous gilt-bronze Apple from 2008 (est. €80,000-120,000 / $102,000-152,000).