Design Auction at Phillips de Pury

7 April '11

London

In the shadow of Les Collections du Château de Gourdon, Phillips de Pury will host their first design auction of the year on the 7th of April in London. The auction features 154 lots with a low estimate of £1,934,500 and a high estimate of £ 2,912,500.

The past sales this year have focused predominately on early and mid-century designers, a safe bet for the auction houses. Phillips de Pury has continued with this trend, padding the sale with well known collectable designers. Unlike the other auctions, however, Phillips are the first to offer a selection of lots from contemporary designers.

While there are a great selection of works from highly collectible designers such as Jean Royère and Gio Ponti, I am more interested to see how these contemporary lots fare. Last year contemporary designers accounted for the least amount of DeTnk's Top 100 this sale will allow us to see how collectors respond to their work.

Are collectors ready to step out of the early/mid-century safety net?

Contemporary lots to watch include:

ATELIER VAN LIESHOUT
‘Prick Lamp (Thin)’, 2004

Reinforced fibreglass, foam. 150 cm (59 in) high, 50 cm (19 3/4 in) diameter Produced by Atelier Van Lieshout, The Netherlands. Number five from the edition of six. Underside with metal label with signature and ‘6 / 5 /AVL 001609’.

ESTIMATE £8,000-12,000

SEBASTIAN BRAJKOVIC
‘Lathe VIII’ chair, 2008

Bronze, silk embroidered upholstery. 105 × 140 × 85 cm (41 3/8 × 55 1/8 × 33 1/2 in) Produced by Landowski, France. Number five from the edition of eight. One leg incised with ‘SB’ and stamped with ‘Landowski Fondeur 2009’.

ESTIMATE £40,000-60,000

You can view the auction catalogue here

“The current London Design auction builds on our recent successes by focusing on a number of key areas of the market. Notably we are offering a particularly strong mid-century French group from pioneering Designers such as Jean Royère, Serge Mouille, Jean Prouvé and Charlotte Perriand. We will also be showing some spectacular Italian works by Franco Albini, Anna Castelli Ferrieri, Gio Ponti and Max Ingrand and actual trends will be reflected with a selection of pieces by Contemporary Design superstars such as David Adjaye, Atelier Van Lieshout and Sebastian Brajkovic.”
Alexander Payne, Worldwide Director of Design for Phillips de Pury & Company

Prick Lamp (Thin) by ATELIER VAN LIESHOU

Lathe VIII’ chair by SEBASTIAN BRAJKOVIC