Doyle + Design
September 17th, 2018
Doyle, New York City
Photos courtesy Doyle
With plenty of international interest, Doyle’s modern and contemporary art and design auction, held two weeks after Labor Day on September 17, rang up a total of $1,348,156 (with buyers’ premiums). Of the 253 lots offered, 82% sold.
A young man standing in the salesroom with his ear to his cell phone bid successfully for Progression of Reds by Irene Rice Pereira (1902-1971), circa 1946. Signed “I. Rice Pereira” and inscribed “Progresion [sic] of Reds” on the stretcher, the 36" x 42" oil painting sold for $37,500 on a $5000/7000 estimate. It was featured on the inside front cover of Doyle’s catalog.
A pair (one shown) of Jean Royère (1902-1981) patinated metal Persane eight-light sconces from the 1950s, with paper shades, apparently unmarked, sold for $34,375 (est. $30,000/50,000) to an online buyer. A pair of these sconces had sold for $47,500 (est. $40,000/60,000) at Christie’s on June 16, 2011.
This leather and oak Rodo stool designed by Jean-Michel Frank (1895-1941), circa 1930, sold to a phone bidder for $31,250 (est. $7000/9000). Stamped on the underside “J.M. Frank and Chanaux & Co.,” the stool is 16 1/2" x 23½" x 17 5/8".
A four-piece nickel-plated Art Deco jazz band (two pieces shown) by Franz Hagenauer (1906-1986) included a saxophone player, trumpet player, drummer, and piano player. It sold to a dealer in the salesroom for $125,000 (est. $30,000/40,000). The set is from the second quarter of the 20th century, and each piece is stamped “Hagenauer Wien Made in Austria.” The tallest piece is 6'½". Another Hagenauer jazz band, comprising seven players, had sold at Sotheby’s on June 15, 2011, for $158,500 (est. $100,000/150,000).
This elevator grille from the Chicago Stock Exchange building, designed by Dankmar Adler and Louis Henry Sullivan in 1893 and demolished in 1972, sold to an absentee bidder for $18,750. The cast- and wrought-iron grille, 74" x 29½", made by Winslow Brothers, Chicago, Illinois, had an estimate of $8000/12,000. It came from the private collection of “important design.”
This pair of Georg Jensen sterling silver five-light candelabra, pattern 383A, each stamped “Georg Jensen Denmark sterling” with a pattern number, sold to an online bidder for $53,125 (est. $40,000/60,000). The grape pattern candelabra, each 10¼" high, weighing approximately 192 ounces total, came from a private Connecticut collection.
“We’ve had interest from four continents,” declared Doyle specialist Todd Sell during the presale exhibition. The presale estimate was $1,040,300/1,534,000.
Many noteworthy lots came from a private collection of “important design,” whose owner remained anonymous. The collection included furniture and decorative arts from the late 19th century through the third quarter of the 20th century with an emphasis on early American and European Modernism.
Other offerings included modern and contemporary furniture and decorative and fine art by some well-known designers, makers, and artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, such as Tiffany Studios, Georg Jensen, Gerrit Rietveld, Franz Hagenauer, Fulvio Bianconi, Jean Royère, Jean-Michel Frank, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Charles Rohlfs, Paul Evans, and Hervé Van der Straeten.
A dozen people gathered in Doyle’s salesroom for the 10 a.m. sale. Several dealers and designers held catalogs filled with sticky notes marking their pages of interest, while Doyle specialists took bids on the phones and online.
The top lot of the sale was this Diego Giacometti (1902-1985) patinated bronze dining table with leaves, birds, and frogs that sold to an online bidder for $150,000. The circa 1980 signed table, 30½" high with a 21½" square base and a replaced 48" diameter glass top, had an estimate of $80,000/100,000.
The top lot of the sale was a patinated bronze dining table by Diego Giacometti (1902-1985) that sold to a an online bidder for $150,000 (est. $80,000/100,000). The table is signed and has leaves on the 21½" square base, birds on the crossbars, and frogs sitting on the legs on the glass top (see the photo). It measures 30½" high and has a replaced 48" diameter glass top.
This Tiffany Studios reticulated bronze and leaded-glass lamp with yellow allamanda flowers in the shade and a base of blown glass within a pineapple metal form and four leaves, stamped “Tiffany Studios New York,” sold to a online bidder for $75,000 (est. $50,000/70,000). The Allamander lamp measures 21¼" high, and the shade is 6" high x 18¼" diameter. The base, listed as No. 338 in the 1906 Tiffany Studios price list, retailed then for $80.
A Tiffany Studios Allamander lamp, with a reticulated bronze base in a pineapple form, sold to an online bidder for $75,000 (est. $50,000/70,000).
An occasional table, a candlestand, a candelabrum and a chest of drawers designed by Charles Rohlfs were offered from the private collection of “important design.” The first three items sold to an Arts and Crafts dealer who was bidding in the salesroom; the last went to a buyer bidding on the phone. The unmarked oak table, 26" high x 25¾" diameter, sold for $5000 (est. $4000/6000); the 13 7/8" high hand-hammered copper candlestand went for $4062.50 (est. $3000/5000); the oak and copper four-light banquet candelabrum with kappa shell shades, signed and dated 1903, 16¾" x 21½", sold for $8750; while the oak chest of drawers, circa 1907, stamped, 60" x 33½", sold on the phone for $8125 (est. $8000/12,000).
At the end of the three-hour auction, several buyers could be seen waiting to pay while porters efficiently wrapped their purchases.
The captions and images illustrate the sale. Further information can be found at (www.doyle.com).
Originally published in the November 2018 issue of Maine Antique Digest. © 2018 Maine Antique Digest
