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).

On December 19, Christie’s finished off the season with a blockbuster triple-header that brought out such major dealers as Tony Delorenzo, of Manhattan’s Delorenzo Gallery, as well as several European buyers, and generated some heated bidding. The day began with 68 lots of Tiffany, the most unusual of which was an elegant glass and wrought-iron fire screen from 1905, distinctive for its superb workmanship and impeccable provenance. One of a group of consignments from the Strong National Museum of Play, a children’s museum in Rochester, New York, it attracted multiple bids, eventually going to an American dealer, who asked to remain anonymous, for $1,665,000, well above its conservative estimate of $100,000 to $150,000. A Nasturtium floor lamp, circa 1910 (est. $250–350,000), brought $385,000, and a superb Poppy table lamp, circa 1910 (est. $125–175,000), went to New York consultants Nancy McClelland and Lars Rachen for $337,000. The bargain of the day was the oil on canvas Rhododendrons, circa 1910 (est. $10–15,000), painted by Louis Comfort Tiffany for his handyman and consigned by the family of the original owner, which went for $91,000. Total sales were far above estimates, suggesting that, as New York antiques dealer Benjamin Macklowe says, “Tiffany is the blue-chip American-art investment.”

Next up was the sale of important 20th-century decorative art and design. The highest earner was a biomorphic green velvet lounge chair by Carlo Mollino, one of a custom-made pair dating to 1946 (est. $500–700,000). The price crept up slowly, driven by two phone bidders and ending at $881,000. Designs by artists also performed well. An enthusiastic French collector took home an understated circa 1934 bronze floor lamp by Alberto Giacometti (est. $250–350,000) for $469,000, and New York dealer Robert Gingold snapped up a set of 10 circa 1935 tapestry-upholstered dining chairs by painter Raoul Dufy ($20–30,000) for $62,200. The grand finale was a striking white fiberglass Boomerang desk and matching leather swivel chair by Maurice Calka, circa 1969, that sailed over its estimate of $30,000 to $50,000 to sell for an impressive $481,000.

The coda to the Christie’s auction, and the week, was the much-anticipated evening sale of objects from the estate of Robin Roberts, founder of the decorator-fabric showroom Clarence House and a discriminating collector. The sale starred a circa 1919–20 bronze armchair by Armand Albert Rateau (est. $600–800,000), the last of eight known examples, four of which had previously sold at Christie’s to such top dealers as Delorenzo and Robert Vallois, of Paris. This one climbed to $2,001,000 (one of its mates sold for €1,580,000, or $2 million, in the June 2006 sale of the collection of Claude and Simone Dray at Christie’s Paris).

Bonhams’s sale of 20th-century decorative arts, held the same day as the Christie’s one, focused on Arts & Crafts, Art Nouveau and contemporary glass. Here, the figures were understandably lower. Only a Tiffany tile chandelier, 1899–1918, and a set of Puiforcat silver flatware, circa 1928, exceeded the $100,000 mark, which, in the current market, is beginning to sound like small change.

As more art lovers discover design, these items will continue to find buyers, and the dollar totals—despite an inevitable correction of some over-the-top prices—seem likely to keep rising.

"20th-Century Design" originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's March 2008 Table of Contents.