Courtesy Patrick Sequin

At Galerie Patrick Seguin, a unique Charlotte Perriand bookcase in steel, wood, and aluminum from 1960 sold for around $182,000.

Courtesy Perimeter Editions

Perimeter Editions sold a stunning three-part Nenuphar Miroir table by Janette Laverrièrre in plexiglass, plywood, and polished steel for roughly $35,000.

 

 

Gio Ponti Isamu Noguchi Marcel Breuer Le Corbusier Joep van Lieshout Neo Rauch Jean Prouvé Charlotte Perriand

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Participation at the design fair was down somewhat, after a handful of major New York and Asian galleries dropped out due to the global recession, but the 27 strong exhibitors on hand reported reassuring results.

Business was booming at Paris-based Galerie Patrick Seguin, which brought its usual vintage stable of major French designers, including Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand, Pierre Jeanneret, and Le Corbusier.

“We’ve had a lot of sales, including some to major contemporary-art collectors,” said Patrick Seguin, explaining that 95 percent of his clients focus on contemporary work.

Seguin sold three minimal wall units in wood from 1956–59 by Le Corbusier at €6,500 ($9,100) apiece, Jean Prouvé’s Brazzaville table from 1952 in African wood and steel for approximately €180,000, and a Chandigarh sofa set with two armchairs from 1952–56 in teak and cow skin by Pierre Jeanneret at €65,000.

Seguin also sold a pair of Jeanneret’s Visitor, High Court armchairs in teak and cow skin, also from Chandigarh, for €40,000, and, from Charlotte Perriand, a unique bookcase in steel, wood, and aluminum from 1960 for around €130,000 as well as a swiveling armchair in wood from circa 1947 for approximately €38,000.

“I had no big expectations,” said Seguin, “but people are really buying.”

It wasn’t only big French modernists that were selling, as indicated by brisk transactions at Rotterdam’s Vivid Gallery.

On Tuesday, screen hunk Brad Pitt continued his Basel buying spree, acquiring from Vivid Atelier van Lieshout’s unique Fossil Chaise Lounge, a 2009 interpretation of a human figure in foam, epoxy, and metal, for €23,000.

Perhaps Pitt will view his newly acquired Neo Rauch painting, Etappe (1998), which he snapped up earlier in the day for €680,000 from New York’s David Zwirner gallery at Art Basel, while lounging in the deliberately funky Lieshout chaise.

A Swiss collector bought Studio Job’s Spoon (2007) — an overgrown model of the pedestrian utensil towering some 10 feet high and clad in 24-carat white-gold mosaic — for €40,000.

Noted graphic designer/architect Mels Crouwel bought Spaniard Jamie Hayon’s prototype Science Vase 2 in pyrex glass and colored tubes from 2009 for €8,500.

“The exciting thing this year,” said Vivid’s creative director, Aad Krol, “is the new location, which brings us so much closer to the main fair.”

But some of the exhibitors were expecting more in terms of both sales and foot traffic, including Paris-based Perimeter Editions.

“We’re happy, but I think we could be doing better,” said the gallery’s Nicola Chwat, who ticked off a number of key sales, including two works by gallery artist Guillaume Bardet.

Moby Dick, a massive bench in Carrara marble from 2008 and part of an edition of 8 plus two artist proofs and two prototypes, sold to a Turkish collector for approximately €45,000, and the organically shaped “Demi Galet,” in resin and lacquer and from the same edition size, sold to a European collector for €24,000.

The gallery also sold a stunning three-part Nenuphar Miroir table by Janette Laverrièrre in plexiglass, plywood, and polished steel, from the same edition size, for €25,000.

Chwat was hoping Pitt, who had expressed strong interest in Studio Libertiny's The Bic Blue Cabinet in lacquer, ink, and wood, priced at for €24,000, would pull the trigger.

“We need a few more sales to make us really happy,” she said.

But on Wednesday afternoon, the generously proportioned aisles in Halle 5 were barely trafficked, leaving the appearance of a fair about to begin, not in its second full day of operation.