20th-Century Design

NEW YORK—Notwithstanding the declining dollar and the lackluster results reported from Design Miami/Basel, buyers—both American and European—came out in force for the December sales in New York and Chicago. Design devotees spent more than $50 million at the four auction houses that dominate the category, a figure that comfortably topped June’s totals and bodes well for the continuing strength of the category. With more than $17.5 million in total sales, Christie’s was out in front, followed closely by Sotheby’s, then Wright and Phillips de Pury & Company.

Sotheby’s got a jump on the season, scheduling its auction of postwar and contemporary design on November 16, 2007, to coincide with the major contemporary-art sales—and the presence of their European clientele. The anticipated highlight was Piero Fornasetti’s iconic 32-panel La Stanza Metafisica screen from 1958 (est. $100–150,000). It was purchased by architect Lee Mindel on behalf of a European client for a record $301,000. New highs were also achieved for Maria Pergay, whose circa 1970s stainless-steel Flying Carpet daybed with leather upholstery (est. $70–90,000) sold for $127,000, and Paul Evans, whose circa 1960 cabinet from his “Sculpted Front” series (est. $70–90,000) made $157,000.

During the regularly scheduled week of sales in mid-December, Sotheby’s held three auctions targeted at different segments of the market. Its sale of German design objects with impeccable scholarly credentials drew curators and serious collectors. The star lot was a rare version of a silver-plated brass and ebony tea infuser, circa 1927, by Bauhaus designer Marianne Brandt (est. $300–500,000), which sold to a private museum for $361,000, a record for Brandt and for Bauhaus design. The house’s sale of Tiffany lamps from the collection of American collector John M. Fowler yielded more than $2 million for just nine lots, including a circa 1905 Wisteria table lamp (est. $450–600,000) that brought $881,000, a record for the model.

In Sotheby’s auction of important prewar design, the top 10 lots included four Rembrandt Bugatti bronze sculptures from a single consignor, among them Deux antilopes goudou (est. $250–350,000), which netted $481,000. However, none of these four—nor another Bugatti, at Christie’s—approached the designer’s high of $2,256,000, achieved by a 1900 baboon sculpture at Sotheby’s New York in December 2006. The session’s most exciting moment came when a circa 1902 Art Nouveau mahogany table with gilt bronze flowers by Louis Majorelle—a superb but modest-size piece expected to sell for $40,000 to $60,000—climbed to a staggering $701,800, paid by an anonymous European collector.

Wright’s Chicago auction was split into two sessions, on December 9 and 11. As in its May design sale, the firm included some high-ticket works of fine art, reinforcing the growing convergence of these markets. There were 77 lots of postwar and contemporary art, including top-performing pieces by Philip Guston ($252,000), Nam June Paik ($288,000) and Ad Reinhardt ($228,000). Of the design lots, the most anticipated was a model room created by Gio Ponti for the 1951 Triennale di Milano (est. $300–400,000), which, at $324,000, was the highest-selling offering. On the second day, Harry Bertoia’s stainless-steel and steel-wire Untitled (Hanging Hemi-sphere) (est. $200–300,000) brought top dollar, at $384,000. Wright, as usual, also ventured into untested territory, with five lots of 1930s furniture from the little-known Hungarian designer Lajos Kozma. As sometimes happens with first showings by this risk-taking house, none of the pieces sold.

At Phillips’s sale of design and design art on December 13, the highest-grossing lot was a rare Maria Pergay one-arm stainless-steel daybed with white upholstery, from 1967 (est. $50–70,000), which drew lively bidding and soared to $421,000, breaking Sotheby’s month-old record for the designer. Ron Arad’s mirror-polished stainless-steel D sofa, from 2003 (est. $80–100,000), sold for a record $409,000, and Fernando and Humberto Campana’s colorful felt Sushi sofa, from 2003 (est. $150–200,000), fetched $253,000. Also among the top lots were Pierre Chareau’s circa 1927 beech and mahogany Cupboard, Model no. MA (est. $80,000–120,000), which made $229,000, and a Jean Prouvé wooden desk with metal drawers (est. $100–120,000), which fetched $217,000. Contemporary ceramics, a new category for the house and one that’s seeing growing interest from collectors, established records for several artists, including Hans Coper ($37,000) and Ruth Duckworth ($22,500).