The display floors of Phillips’s Auction House in Berkeley Square are bursting out with masterpieces of modern design from late 19th century to the 21st in advance of the “Design” auction on the evening of the 27th and the fund-raising auction “Time for Design” on the 28th for the Design Museum as it prepares to move into its new building in Kensington, both exhibitions showing design classics and furniture from a wide variety of designers, architects and artists.
“Time for Design”, co-curated by Deyan Sudjic, Director of the Design Museum and Alexander Payne, Worldwide Director of Design at Phillips, is both a live auction and an outline-only auction with pieces donated by friends of the museum, in many cases the designers or the manufacturers themselves.
The two previews together provide an outstanding display of work from c1895 (an étagère by Charles Robert Ashbee) to the present time with examples such as Sebastian Cox’s unique workspace “Getting Away from It All” (2014) and Laurent Muller’s “Moebus” mirror from 2015, plus Norman Foster’s glass and bronze “Arc” table and Thomas Heatherwick polished copper “Spun chair” (both 2015). Other architects’ furniture designs include the Gerrit Rietvelt’s classic “Red and Blue” armchair designed in 1919, Zaha Hadid’s streamlined aluminium bench (2003), Frank Gehry’s relatively restrained “cross check” armchair (1990) and Oscar Neimeyer’s “Rio” rocking chaise longue (c.1978). Universities should note that good furniture design has its value in more ways than one – a “Tunisie’ bookcase (1952) designed for the student rooms of La Maison de la Tunisie, Cite Internationale Universitaire de Paris by Charlotte Periand has a guide price of £70.000 to £90,000.
The roll call of designers covers many of the great names of the last 100 years including René Herbst, Eileen Gray, Ron Arad and Gio Ponti with a carpet designed by Ivan da Silva Bruhns for the Maharaja of Indore’s bedroom and, in complete contrast to the rest – remembering that modern is sometimes traditional, the extravagant Venetian wall lanterns designed by Flavio Poli for the Bauer Hotel in Venice (c1940).
Art and design is combined with Alberto Giacometti’s chess set (1946/7), Michael Craig Martin’s “Timetable” desk (2015) and Antony Gormley’s “Small Spall III” (2013), while, not forgetting other industries such as music, Bono has donated an “Irish Falcon” guitar from 2005 designed by Gretsch.
Finally, in this digital age, 2016 is represented by Apple with a unique leather-clad iPad Pro, iPad Smart Cover, Apple Pencil and holder (2016), estimated at £10,000 to £15,000.
Cheque books at the ready……
