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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Several exhibitors voiced irritation at the “try and find it” situation, saying it might be the result of a tricky relationship between Art Basel’s sponsor, the giant but troubled Swiss bank UBS, and Design Miami/Basel’s main sponsor, HSBC Private Bank.

“There’s no signage,” complained design dealer Loïc Le Gaillard of London's Carpenters Workshop. “It’s completely screwy because UBS doesn’t want to see any HSBC signage. The move of the design fair to here (from the Markthalle) hasn’t created more foot traffic.”

Efforts to reach a UBS spokesperson for comment were unsuccessful, and a spokesperson for Art Basel declined to comment, explaining that there is “nothing I can say at this point” of the perceived situation.

But back to the commercial action. Stockholm- and Berlin-based Jacksons, a Design Miami/Basel newcomer, reported a handful of sales, including Gio Ponti’s Jumping Horse desk in Mahogany from the 1950s for a little under €70,000 and a 1936 Marcel Breuer laminated Birch table in molded plywood that the architect/designer originally gave to his accountant and that a young Swiss collector picked up for €20,000.

The gallery also sold a striking cabinet from the 1940s by Austrian designer Josef Frank that is covered in paper decorations of botanical illustrations for €30,000.

Jacksons’s star attraction, though, a rare and stunning swivel-top Isamu Noguchi table in aluminum and wood from 1944, believed to be one of only four extent versions and priced in the €200,000 range, had yet to find a buyer.

“It’s an important and rare piece,” said gallerist Paul Jackson. “I discovered it in a New York collection and immediately bought it.”

Veteran exhibitor Philippe Denys of Brussels was very pleased with the rate of transactions at his booth, which included some hard bargaining with Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. The billionaire art-lover bought a slew of work by Poul Kjaerholm, including two marble-topped tables from the mid-1950s for €55,000 and a set of six leather-covered PK 9 chairs with stainless steel legs for €36,000.

“He likes to bargain,” said Denys.

The dealer also sold a rare grouping of colored, cube-shaped lights in fiberglass by Verner Panton that were commissioned for the German news magazine Der Speigel’s Hamburg headquarters in 1968 for €20,000.

One of the more unusual additions to this latest edition of Design Miami/Basel is first-timer Galerie Perrin of Paris, more familiar to visitors of Maastricht’s TEFAF fair; in shocking contrast to the mostly 20th- and 21st-century dealers at the fair, Perrin is exclusively offering works from the 18th century.

Has Design Miami/Basel gone antique?

Who knows, but dealer Philippe Perrin was delighted with his new surroundings, saying “it’s a totally different crowd” compared to TEFAF, “and the response has been pretty good.”

“I feel comfortable,” added the dealer, despite not having made any sales. “I brought really big and important things and they [the collectors] don’t decide in a minute.”

Even some of the exhibitors that opted out of Design Miami/Basel this time round felt good about the fair, and about its new atmosphere. “We’ll come back next year,” said Suzanne Demisch of the New York–based Demisch Danant. “It’s an important part of the business.”

Judd Tully is Editor at Large of Art+Auction.