Danese
Collection Mieke and Jan Teunen

Danese - Collection Mieke and Jan Teunen

Danese does not merely represent the success story of an Italian design company. With their unparalleled openness and freedom of thought, its two founders, Jacqueline Vodoz (1921 - 2005) and Bruno Danese (1930 - 2016), provided an opportunity for artists and designers such as Bruno Munari, Enzo Mari, and others to realize utopian art and design projects whose commercial success at the time did not at all seem given.

On october 9 Quittenbaum will offer part of the Danese collection of the design experts and design afficionados Mieke and Jan Teunen. In 1988 the couple took over the sales responsibility for the wonderful edition of multiples and design products by Jacqueline Vodoz and Bruno Danese from Milan. In 1980s Germany, the collection had been in a deep slumber. The Teunens kissed it awake with big-scale exhibitions at, among others, the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf (21.10. - 3.12.1989) and the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum, Ludwigshafen (11.02. - 31.03.1990). They not only published the accompanying catalogue with the title Design.Kunst.Spiele in an edition with 6.000 copies, but were also responsible for its content. In the 1990s, Danese was sold and the new proprietors allowed Mieke and Jan Teunen to purchase objects from the Danese-archives which had been long out of stock.

Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari, who had a great influence on Danese's successful story, are represented in our auction with important art multiples and wonderful objects for everyday life.For Danese Bruno Munari invented the ingenious ashtray 'Cubo' (Cat. 2–8) as well as his famous lamp 'Falkland' (Cat. 45). He contributed to the field of art editions with his 'Polariscop' (lot 53), 'a multiple for the pocket', as well as with his portable sculptures 'Sculture da viaggio' (lot 11).

Enzo Mari began his serial work when he was still a student at the Milan Art Academy. In the late 1950s, he explored the possibilities of spatial experience under changing light conditions and different viewer perspectives through creating three-dimensional objects which he exhibited at 'Arte programmata' in 1962 and the 'New Tendencies' exhibition in Zagreb in 1963. The Mieke and Jan Teunen collection includes the outstanding art object 'Quattro spirali' (lot 10) and a multiple with the title 'Oggetto a composizione autocondotta' (lot 13), as well as spherical and cubic objects made of synthetic resin (lots 14–22). In his designs for everyday objects such as the containers 'Citera' (lots 25–29) or the penholder 'Malta' (lot 24), Enzo Mari followed the credo of creating objects with shapes that appear as simple as possible and whose technique and function adheres to an elemental formal system.

Danese - The Mieke and Jan Teunen Collection

Yet before the auction the response to the great collection of Danese objects and art editions from the property of Mieke and Jan Teunen was high. Our exhibition offered the public the rare opportunity to see a great variety of designs and early editions by Bruno Munari and Enzo Mari. 

70% of 98 items were sold on the auction day. Private collectors and international art dealers fought fierce bidding battles. High hammer prices were reached for Enzo Maris ’24 Cubes’ (lot 33), sold for € 8,000 and Bruno Munaris cinetic object ‚ Tetracono SM‘ (lot 46), sold for € 8,700, high above the starting price of € 1,500. Especially art multiples were sought after, Maris ‚Oggetto a composizione autocondotta‘ from 1959/1971 (lot 13) found a new owner for € 3,600.

Sculptural bowls such as the objects from the ‚Paros‘ series and vases which were inspired by bamboo plants and columns increased from their estimates. A collector from Germany purchased three bowls of the ‚Putrelle‘ series for € 3.400 (lot 9). Three vases ‚Tortiglion‘ (lot 60) were sold to an online bidder from Japan for € 2,100.