Design auction at Dorotheum

7th November '13

Vienna

The Design auction at Dorotheum on 7th November celebrates benchmark designs of the 20th century.

The collection presents items spanning from the Bauhaus to the Viennese Secession, from the early 20th century to the 2008 re-edition of the Sacco seat by Vanzetti in moulded concrete.

A rich body of works from the Italian designers of the Fifties to the early Nineties also substantiates the collection, gathering names like Archizoom, Alberto Biagetti, Dada Maino, Osvaldo Borsani, Gio Ponti, Gino Sarfatti, Ignazio Gardella, the murano vases by Venini, Memphis, Alessandro Mendini, Fornasetti, Gae Aulenti, Joe Colombo.

The unique piece “Pannello Dinamico” from Dada Maino (€40,000-45,000) figures among these, reveiling the accurate research on spectral colours and the conceptual study of dynamic change through movement in space.

“Pannello Dinamico” from Dada Maino (€40,000-45,000)

A few pieces designed for Meta Memphis by Lawrence Weiner, Sol Lewitt, Sandro Chia and Michelangelo Pistoletto are confronted with the iconic Memphis Tawaraya (€18,000-24,000), the Joe seat (€3,000-4,000) and a rare surrealistic sideboard by Officina 11 (“Cielo, Mare, Terra”, two doors of the Fiat 600 prima series and walnut) estimated €15,000-18,000.

A “Joe” seat object,
designed by Paolo Lomazzi & Donato D’Urbino & Jonathan de Pas in 1970/71

Also figuring among the highlights is a complete series of “Fourteen Ceramics and Glasses” by Ettore Sottsass (€50,000-55,000).

Older pieces include early bentwood chairs from Thonet (€1,800 to 16,000), tables and seats by Joseph Hoffman and Adolf Loos and an elegant upholstered chair attributed to Friedrich Otto Schmidt and belonged to Loos (€20,000-30,000). Also designed by Loos are a rare tea table (€20,000-25,000) and a pendant lamp (€32,000-38,000). Various designs by Mathieu Mategot and Marcel Breuer, two Prouvé pieces and a few Jeanneret armchairs and sofas will be auctioned as well.

A rare tea table (“The elephant trunk table”),
designed by Adolf Loos

Counting various pieces by Ron Arad, the Contemporary design section presents a “New Orleans” armchair in pigmented polyester and fiberglass handmade by Arad in 1999 (€50,000-60,000) as well as a rare “Porca Miseria” chandelier by Ingo Maurer (€15,000-25,000) and an “Anemone Chair” by the Campana brothers (€2,400-2,800), no longer in production. The realistic utopia of Jerszy Seymour’s “The First Supper” installation held in 2008 at MAK Vienna, is represented by the only remaining bench, valued for €12,000-16,000.

An “Anemone Chair”,
designed by Fernando & Humberto Campana in 2001 for Edra