Small and portable seems to be the latest category to infatuate buyers, as a trove of snazzy artist-made jewelry from a single owner showed. Lucio Fontana’s oversized, otherworldly, oval-shaped silver-and-lacquer bracelet from 1969 sold for $43,750 (est. $12,000–18,000), and the artist’s eight-inch minimalist gold arm cuff from 1967, from an edition of 30 and complete with its original pouch and promotional photograph by Ugo Mulas, fetched $55,000 (est. $12–18,000).  

“We achieved a good result in a situation in which the sale included little in the way of high-end ‘star’ lots and was strongly weighted in middle-value pieces,” said Christie’s international head of design, Philippe Garner. “There were enough strong flurries and very competitive interest in such sections as the Lalanne works and the jewelry to confirm that the market remains strong and hungry for rare and interesting pieces.”

Sotheby’s
On June 14, Sotheby’s Important 20th Century Design Sale mirrored its rivals’ rough mix of success and failure, earning the week’s biggest total at $7.4 million.

The progression of lots was deliberately anti-chronological, mixing periods and designers in a refreshing way that also seemed to partially obscure the sale’s overall lack of top-rate material and significant representation of any single designer’s work.

Still, some pieces fetched many times their estimates, proving there’s still considerable appetite for certain special works. On the conservative front, Tiffany Studios’s Apple Blossom table lamp in leaded glass and patinated bronze from circa 1905 was easily the top lot — and the week’s most expensive item — at $932,500 (est. $250–350,000).

Twin sculptors Jan and Joel Martel’s Futurist-inspired and decidedly fantastic model Locomotive en Marche (circa 1930), in sheet aluminum and lacquered wood, sped to $386,500 (est. $70–90,000). Jean-Michel Frank also made a strong impression, with a rare chromium-plated, zebra-hide-upholstered armchair from circa 1930 that fetched a whopping $230,500 (est. $20–30,000).

Rarity worked its charms for Isamu Noguchi’s prototype Prismatic Table (1957), fabricated in anodized aluminum for the Alcoa Forecast Program, which rose to $290,500 (est. $100–150,000).

A small group of rare, unique, and fresh-to-market wood pieces by Wendell Castle also met heavy demand, with a 1967 two-seater sofa carved from rosewood selling for $152,500 (est. $40–60,000).

On the downside, a pair of Prouvé surplus doors from 1949, in lacquered steel, Plexiglas, and fiberglass insulation and originally made for one of Prouvé’s Maisons Tropicales but never used, fell flat and failed to sell at $85,000 (est. $100–150,000). Another pair of the famed portholed doors made $680,000 (est. $60–80,000) at Sotheby’s New York in December 2004. Has the market love affair with Prouvé cooled?

Similarly, a tired set of a sofa and pair of armchairs by the heavily marketed Jean Royere, in sycamore, walnut, and fabric from circa 1938, was bought in at $65,000 (est. $80–120,000).

But Sotheby’s broke the recent bad luck spell of designer structures bombing at auction when Shigeru Ban’s 38-ton 2007 Artek Pavilion kit, in recycled materials, plywood, and clear polypropene, found a willing buyer, albeit well below the pre-sale estimates of $800,000–1.2 million, at $602,500.

Though officially anonymous, the buyer is believed to be an American art dealer eager to use the structure for exhibitions coming soon to the Hamptons.

Asked to explain the week’s seemingly high percentages of buy-ins, Sotheby’s design head James Zemaitis noted, “There’s an extreme desire on the part of the auction houses to spam the market with too many pieces of furniture, but there are not enough collectors to keep up with it. There’s just too much flipping, churning, and burning.”