Maine Antique Digest April 2015

Maine Antique Digest, April 2015 25-D

- AUCTIONS -

ollectors of rare Tiffany

lamps and 20th-century

furniture and decorative

arts had their Christmas early at

the December design sales held

at Sotheby’s, Phillips, Christie’s,

Bonhams, andWright on Decem-

ber 9-17, 2014. Good buys were

made by dealers and by collec-

tors. Conviviality spread in the

salerooms as the action-packed

week came to a close and the

auction houses prepared to wind

down for the holidays.

Many of the same people were

seen on the days leading up to

the sales, viewing and taking

notes on the 1267 lots offered by

the five houses. During the auc-

tions some of them competed for

the same lots and afterward com-

pared notes and congratulated

one another on sales well made.

The week’s sales totaled about

$52.92 million, with Sotheby’s

three sales contributing about

$21.2 million and Phillips’ three

sales adding just over $20 mil-

lion to the total figure. Chris-

tie’s total was $7.19 million;

Wright had sales of $3.4 million;

and Bonhams’ total was $1.13

million.

“There was a great deal of

inventory brought to the market

at a compressed time,” said Brent

Lewis, Wright’s New York City

director. “The quality was very

high across the board,” and the

results “showed a good strong

market” with “some depth,” he

added.

Sotheby’s sale titled Tiffany:

Dreaming in Glass was mar-

keted to contemporary art collec-

tors and promoted with a vanity

catalog. In addition, a dinner for

potential buyers was held at the

Upper East Side auction house.

The 40-lot sale, described as “top

choice” by one dealer, totaled

$6,585,875 (including buyers’

premiums) with 87.8% sold by

lot. The two top lots of that sale,

two successively numbered Wis-

teria lamps, contributed $2.35

million to the total. They were

sold on the phone to a private

American collector by Jodi Pol-

lack, head of the 20th-century

design department and a senior

vice president. Besides the Wis-

terias, five other Tiffany lamps

came from a “highly important”

collection assembled by Sandra

van den Broek, a dealer and col-

lector, over a 30-year period. She

had sold all of them to the pres-

ent owner five years ago, and

was present at all the sales of the

week and bought a few things

for herself as well as for clients.

“Jodi did a great job,” said

New York City dealer Ben

Macklowe of Macklowe Gallery,

who stood in the back of Sothe-

by’s salesroom and bought five

things. “She understands how

important Tiffany is.”

While Sotheby’s offered blue

chip Tiffany, Christie’s was seen

by some buyers as a disappoint-

ment. The sales took place a

full week before all of the other

design sales, “perhaps a strategic

Bonhams/Christie’s/Phillips/Sotheby’s/Wright, New York City

The Design Sales of December

by Julie Schlenger Adell

Photos courtesy the auction houses

error,” said one buyer; the offer-

ings were described as “mid-

dling” by a few dealers, and the

maintenance of the lamps “was

not up to par.” Christie’s “was

a bomb,” said one dealer who

attended all of the week’s sales

and bought several things.

Carolyn Pastel, head of sale

and a specialist at Christie’s

explained that the sales were held

a week before the other auction

houses’ sales “because we would

have been the last sale, and that

was too close to Christmas.”

Furthermore, works from the

two design sales were on view

at the same time as Christie’s

Magnificent Jewels sale and its

Exceptional Sale, “and we got a

couple of new clients from that,”

the 20th-century design special-

ist said in a phone interview.

Christie’s Tiffany sale fol-

lowed its 20/21 Design auction,

which included Art Deco items

from the Marsha Miro collec-

tion. The two sales totaled about

$7.19 million, with sales from

Tiffany contributing $1.9 million

and the Miro collection contrib-

uting around $2.4 million. Of the

65 Tiffany lots offered, 19 failed

to sell during the December 9

auction.

Phillips, best known for offer-

ing the ultimate in design, didn’t

disappoint. Over two days and

three sales, the Park Avenue

auction house, whose catalogs

are noteworthy, offered 193 lots,

selling just over $20 million. The

top sale was Isamu Noguchi’s

Goodyear table, which sold on

the phone for $4,450,500 (est.

$2/3 million), an auction record

for Noguchi. The salesroom was

filled for this early evening sale

and became hushed as a buyer in

the room competed for the table,

dropping out only when the bid

reached $3.9 million.

Meaghan Roddy, head of the

design sales at Phillips, said the

auction “was very exciting for

collectors. These were block-

buster works of 20th-century

design, and we had such a strong

response.” Highlights included

other works by Noguchi as well

as by Eileen Gray and Carlo

Mollino, she added. Lighting

fixtures by Max Ingrand, furni-

ture by Gio Ponti, and glass by

Fulvio Bianconi rounded out the

sales at Phillips.

Bonhams offered 166 lots

of 20th-century decorative arts

including Arts and Crafts and

Tiffany Studios, Art Nouveau,

Art Deco, and modern design

and contemporary studio works

of art. In the latter category, a

1994 glass sculpture by William

Morris,

Canopic Jar: Fallow

Deer

, sold for $167,000. The

sale totaled $1.13 million, with

55.7% sold by lot. “We had a

decent sale,” said Frank Mara-

schiello, director of 20th-cen-

tury decorative arts. “There was

a lot of material out there,” he

said, adding that sales of Tiffany

lamps with good provenance

and fresh to the market remain

strong.

Wright’s Important Design

sale, with 416 lots, was con-

ducted on line by LiveAuction-

eers and totaled $3,406,418,

with 75.7% sold by lot. The

Chicago-based auction house

exhibited works from the sale in

both its New York City and Chi-

cago locations. The sale included

numerous works by Frank Lloyd

Wright, furniture by Gio Ponti,

glass by Ettore Sottsass, and a

collection of Tommi Parzinger

furniture and lighting from the

Jean and Roger Grossman col-

lection of Chappaqua, New

York.

Wright’s NewYork City direc-

tor, Brent Lewis, said, “We’re

happy overall,” adding, “the

market performed best at the

high end. We saw that works of

the best quality, regardless of

price point, did well in all of the

sales, as well as ours.” Post-auc-

tion sales at Wright included

works by Ron Arad.

“It will be interesting to see

what happens this year,” Lewis

remarked about 2015.

Further information can be

obtained on the Web sites of the

five auction houses.

The week’s

sales totaled

about $52.92

million.

A phone buyer and a man in the salesroom vied for this table by Isamu

Noguchi (1904-1988). The bidding continued for several minutes, with

the phone buyer eking out the win by $50,000. The Goodyear table,

made by Noguchi in 1939 for A. Conger Goodyear of Old Westbury,

New York, sold for $4,450,500 (est. $2/3 million). Goodyear (1877-1964)

was the first president of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

The stack-laminated table with original Herculite glass, 28¾" x 83" x

34 3/8", is listed as artwork number 162 in the Isamu Noguchi catalogue

raisonné. The sale was an auction record for Noguchi. Phillips.

Two successively numbered Tiffany Studios Wisteria table lamps, 1901-

05, sold on the phone to the same buyer for $1,145,000 and $1,205,000

(each est. $700,000/1,000,000). They were part of Sotheby’s Tiffany:

Dreaming in Glass sale and part of a collection of seven Tiffany lamps

assembled over 30 years by dealer and collector Sandra van den Broek.

She eventually sold them to a private person about five years ago. “I

found the first Wisteria in Florida and the second one fifteen years later

in Colorado,” she said in a post-sale interview. “The pair of Wisterias is

my favorite,” she exclaimed. She tried to buy each of them again but was

outbid by the phone bidder on the line with Sotheby’s head of depart-

ment Jodi Pollack. Sotheby’s.

This pair of Weed vase forms

designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

was included in Sotheby’s Import-

ant 20th Century Design sale.

Estimated at $200,000/300,000,

the patinated copper vases,

29 1/8" high, sold to an Asian pri-

vate collector for $389,000. They

were executed between 1895 and

1900 by sheet-metal producer

James A. Miller and Brother, Chi-

cago. Sotheby’s.

Five of the top ten lots

of The Collector: Icons of

Design at Phillips were by

Carlo Mollino. Seen here

is a side chair of painted

beech and painted brass,

designed in 1959 for

Mollino’s office in Turin,

Italy. The phones were

very busy taking bids,

and the chair, estimated

$200,000/300,000,

eventually

sold

for

$758,500. Other items

designed

Mollino

(not shown) included

a unique roll-top desk,

which sold for $986,500

(est. $600,000/800,000);

adjustable

day-

bed,

estimated

$250,000/300,000, which

sold for $506,500; a

marble, oak, and brass

table for $470,500 (est.

$ 1 8 0 , 0 0 0 / 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 ) ,

and a Tipo B side

chair for $482,500 (est.

$ 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 / 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 ) .

Phillips.