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With an increasing number of contemporary design objects commanding six-figure prices at auction, it should come as no surprise that Christie’s New York will hold a sale, on September 8, devoted exclusively to the category. Until now, pieces such as Ron Arads mirror-polished D sofa, from 1995, and Zaha Hadids 2006 Aqua table, in polyurethane, would have been folded into 20th-century design sales. But these works have now proved their collectibility. “There are milestones happening in every area of this market,” says the Christie’s specialist Carina Villinger, who points to the rising profile of fairs like Design Miami/Basel and Design London. Also contributing to the success of this niche is the commitment of galleries like New York’s Friedman Benda and Established & Sons, in London.

An unexpected name has recently been added to that list: Mallett, the revered dealer of 17th- through- 19th-century furniture. Hoping to capitalize on the demand for newly minted creations, the 143-year-old London- and New York–based firm has launched Meta under the creative direction of the husband-and-wife team Louise-Anne Comeau and Geoffrey Monge. Mallett, which debuted the Meta line of 11 bespoke designs by five international stars in April at the Milan Furniture Fair, is more readily associated with Queen Anne chairs than swooping modern forms, yet the dealership sees the new venture as crucial to its continued success. “The core part of our business is shrinking in supply,” says Mallett’s managing director, Giles Hutchinson Smith. “I joined Mallett in 1980, and the auction houses were having sales of English and French furniture every month. Now there are only two or three of any significance annually.”

This year at Christie’s London, the holdings of the British philanthropist Simon Sainsbury were sold for £16.5 million ($32.2 million). The prize lot was the Kenure cabinet, attributed to Thomas Chippendale, which brought £2.2 million ($4.5 million). But such high-caliber pieces are exceedingly rare, and with that in mind, Mallett decided it might be easier to build a modern-day Kenure cabinet than seek out an original. Hutchinson Smith compares that iconic 18th-century example to Meta’s $700,000 Fig Leaf wardrobe by the Dutch designer Tord Boontje. So far, no orders have been placed for the opulent piece, which is covered with 616 handpainted enameled-glass leaves. “It’s a big sum for a single object,” notes Hutchinson Smith. “Yet, if you asked for $1,000 per leaf, it would be $616,000. So it starts to reveal how not-expensive it is.”

Mallett, which spent $2 million to launch Meta, doesn’t expect to turn a profit this year. But that doesn’t mean collectors aren’t biting. One best seller is a hanging lantern by the Paris-based Matali Crasset. The fixture comprises 24 mouth-blown glass panes encased in paktong, a warm-hued, tarnish-resistant metal. By mid-July, six had been ordered, for $60,000 each, and at least one of the creations by the other designers, which include the Glissade desk ($75,000) by Wales & Wales of London, had been sold. Next year, Meta will collaborate with a new mix of designers. Expect some smaller-scale pieces at proportionally lower prices.

Meta’s avant-garde aesthetic suggests that Mallett is courting a younger audience. But the firm insists that it has no intention of shedding any existing clients, who, Hutchinson Smith says, are mostly over 55. In fact, this group makes up more than half of Meta’s present clientele. Mallett has never worried about demand. “It’s not that our customers are diminishing in number, but you need a certain quantity of things to make a market,” says the director.

Others in the antiques trade, while agreeing that top-notch examples are hard to come by, remain undaunted by the challenges. Jeremy Garfield-Davies, a London dealer specializing in 18th-century pieces and a former vice president of Mallett, congratulates the firm, but adds that part of his job satisfaction lies in ferreting out the prime works from the past. “I read a dealer’s catalogue that talked about how difficult it was to assemble the pieces they were presenting to their clients and how it was only getting harder to find the best examples of English and European furniture,” he says. “And the catalogue was from 1932! So it’s a familiar story. But the strength of a dealer is to know where those pieces are and to be in a privileged position to acquire them.” The New York–based furniture dealer Clinton Howell also compliments Mallett on its enterprise but remains cautious about venturing out on his own: “Dealers are all about taste, and Mallett is aiming to show that it has taste in virtually every area. If I had a huge budget, I might do what they are doing.”

Although copycat lines have yet to emerge, Hutchinson Smith doesn’t doubt that there are “people waiting in the wings” to see how Meta fares. “The key word for everyone in this business,” he observes, “is diversification.”

"Mallett's Meta-morphosis" originally appeared in the September 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's September 2008 Table of Contents.