Design

Great interest and outstanding results for Borsani, Halabala and Prouvé

Our auction ’International Design’ on Wednesday, June 27th, on contrary to some football games taking place at the same time, proved a great success with many very good and outstanding results achieved after fierce bidding battles.

Among the lots sold for more than twice of the estimate price were for instant the early and very rare tea trolley by Jinfrich Halabala (sold for 6.700€), an early floor lamp by Noguchi (almost 1.700€) and the armchair ‘Visiteur‘ by Prouvé (5.400€). The carpet by Alexander Calder was sold for 10.300€, whereas the extraordinary wicker chair with ottoman designed by Janine Abrahan and Dirk Jan Rol in the 1950s reached the final price of 1900€.

Also the Italian design sold very well. The highly geometric shelving system ‘E22‘ by Osvaldo Borsani, designed in 1957 and enriched by Arnaldo Pomodoro‘s spectacular bronze relief, will change hands from the Italian to Paris ownership for 12.300€ (well over the starting price of 8.000€). Angelo Lelli‘s floral floor lamp ‘Calla‘ found a new home in Bavaria for 3.400€. A Swiss collector made sure to get all the Bruno Munari objects from this auction: the ceiling lamps “Esagonale“ and “Trangolare“ were sold for their estimate price (1000€), the sculpture “Flexy“ for 700€, whereas the “Cubobar“ liquor chart goes to Switzerland for the threefold of its estimate (1.200€).

However, the greatest price increase was quoted for an elegant pair of italian sconces from the early 1960s: it sextupled from the modest estimate of 300€ to the final price of 1800€. The high scorer of the afternoon were, just as in the previous auctions, the design items by Fornasetti: in high demand on the international market, almost 70% of the lots were sold, situating themselves on the price range between 200€ and 2300€.

The design of the 1980s is definitely in. The price of Martine Bedin’s ‘Super’ lamp from the early 1980s rose from the moderate estimate of 600€ to over 1500€ and goes to an English bidder. Very much sought-after were also the extravagant works by the British Mark Brazier-Jones from the late 1980s. A Munich collector was willing to pay almost a double of the estimate price (4.900€) for the ‘Wingback chair’, produced in a limited edition of 50 and completely sold out by the 1990s, and almost a triple (1.400€ ) for the ‘Whaletail chair’, auctioned as an individual lot. A set of four of these chairs went to a collector from the Czech Republic for 3600€. The remarkable radio designs by the French Daniel Weil from the early 1980s are extremely rare and in high demand. The radio-sculptures 'Four Boxes and one Radio' and 'Muralla China' exceeded their estimate price (300€) four and a half fold, eventually being sold to a Spanish collector for 1.400€ each after a fierce bidding battle.

If you could not participate in our auction due to the football broadcast or any other reason, you still have the chance to discover and purchase many fascinating items in our post-auction sale. We are looking forward to seeing you in our show room or on our website: www.quittenbaum.de.