VIENNA, AUSTRIA.- Unique first-rate collectibles, from Art Nouveau through to our day, are going to be put up for auction in the design sale on 12 November 2003 at the Vienna Dorotheum. The auction features such prominent artists as Kolo Moser, Josef Hoffmann,Carlo Bugatti, Josef Hoffmann , Macel Breuer, Walter Dorwin, George Nelson as well as Oskar Hodosi, Walter Pichler or Joe Columbo. 

As to furniture from around 1900, a double-door wardrobe by Kolo Moser dating from 1904 will be in the focus of attention. The wardrobe, of rigid geometric form with concave sides, once formed part of the dressing room in the Berlin apartment of Dr. Jerome and Margarete Stonborough-Wittgenstein (€ 30,000 – 35,000). Further early highlights include a large extension table by Carlo Bugatti from c. 1900 (€ 30,000 – 40,000), a white lacquered lady’s desk from c. 1900 by Josef Hoffmann, originally incorporated in a sleeping room ensemble (manufactured by J. & J. Kohn, € 26,000 – 36,000), as well as a bed and bedside cabinet by Josef Hoffmann for the Vienna apartment of Dr. Hermann Wittgenstein, dating from 1906 (€ 9,000 – 12,000). A flower holder by Berthold Löffler from 1902 (€ 9,000 – 12,000) features a black and white chequered pattern, while a lattice-shaped flower holder by Kolo Moser and Josef Hoffmann rests on a chequered wooden cube (€ 8,000 – 10,000). The nameplate of the Wiener Werkstätte’s New York branch comes from private ownership. It is a rare example in English language, estimated at Euro 3,000 to 4,000 and offered on the occasion of the Wiener Werkstätte’s 100th anniversary. 

The rare twin desk by the architect Erich Mendelsohn, who emigrated from Germany in the 1930s, and his assistant Serge Chermayeff was designed for the De La Warr Pavilion in Bexhill on Sea in England in 1934/1935. Mendelsohn won the competition in 1934, and the De La Warr Pavilion became a milestone in the history of modern English architecture (€ 3,000 – 4,000). A two-tier display cabinet by Josef Frankwas conceived for Haus & Garten around 1928/1930 (Vienna, € 3,000 – 4,000). 

Oskar Hodosi - Also the offer of tubular steel furniture is worth mentioning, including a pair of cantilever chairs Model MR 10 by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1927) in a version manufactured by Thonet Frankenberg around 1930/1933 (€ 6,000 – 8,000), Marcel Breuer’s Wassili clubchair Model B3 (1925), likewise manufactured by Thonet Frankenberg, dating from c. 1930/1932 (€ 26,000 – 30,000), or Marcel Breuer’s famous chaise longue Model 313 (1932/1934) as an aluminium variant produced by Embru (€ 24,000 – 30,000). Important furniture of Czech modernism is represented by the chairs Zidle H 79 and Zidle prusici H 80 by Jindrich Halabala (Brno 1930), made of chromium plated tubular steel and red iron yarn (€ 5,000 – 6,000). 

Most spectacular 20th-century industrial design is exemplified by Walter Dorwin Teague’s Blue Bird radio set, designed in 1934. The shape of this radio, named after a North-American songbird, is not based on constructive requirements – the technical apparatus is hidden in a small box behind the mirror – but is meant as a metaphor: The medium of broadcasting, still young in those days, as a mirror of the world (USA, 1937, € 7,000 – 9,000). Further interesting design collectibles from the USA are George Nelson’s Pretzel chair (1957), so light that it can be lifted with two fingers (1980s, € 1,800 – 2,200), and Harry Bertoia’s Sounding Sculpture, made of copper and bronze (c. 1960/65, € 15,000 – 20,000). 

Joe Colombo - Another focal point is design from the 1960s and 1970s, with a cantilever-construction Violon seat object by Oskar Hodosi (Austria, 1969, € 10,000 – 15,000) and Walter Pichler’s Galaxy chair (1966, € 4,000 – 5,000). Roberto Sebastian Matta’s five-piece Malitte system of seat furniture (1966) may also be used as an autonomous sculpture (€ 2,000 – 3,000). But also Joe Columbo’s Tube chair, designed in 1969/1970 (€ 7,000 – 8,000), or his extreme Dining Trolley, fitted with an electrical hotplate, a fridge cabinet for bottles, a shelf for storing dishes and an extension table (1970, € 6,000 – 7,000), is expected to attract a lot of attention. 

Last but not least mention should be made of Gaetano Pesce’s pilot model of a red Green Street chair, as opposed to the black standard edition (1984, € 800 – 1,200), Ron Arad’s rare Lecture lectern, designed in 1993 (€ 10,000 – 12,000), as well as of Chaise Barbare by Elisabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti, a chair made of wrought iron, leather straps and animal skin (€ 7,000 – 9,000). Auction: DESIGN, 12 November 2003, 5 p.m.