Phillips de Pury Announces Details of Halsey Minor-Design Sale
NEW YORK, NY.- Phillips de Pury announced the highlights from its June 9th New York Design auction. The sale will offer additional works from The Halsey Minor Collection. Part I was sold in a single-owner evening sale held at Phillips de Pury on May 13th, including Marc Newson’s prototype Lockheed Lounge for $2,098,000, a new world record for the artist.
The Halsey Minor Collection
Mr. Minor, a technology entrepreneur, founded CNET Networks in San Francisco in 1993. Since then he has amassed a highly important collection including works by contemporary designers Marc Newson, Martin Szekely, Jasper Morrison, and Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, as well as mid-century masters Paul Dupré-Lafon, Jean Royère, and Diego Giacometti. The arrival to market of these and other major works presents a critical opportunity for buyers.
Highlights from Mr. Minor’s collection include an important early Pod of Drawers, 1987, by Newson. The chest, with an estimate of $300,000-400,000, is one of the earliest examples made by the artist and bears a complex and arresting arrangement of riveted aluminum panels. The work, based on a famous bombé chest by Art Deco designer André Groult, was originally purchased by a private New York collector who happened upon Newson’s Sydney workshop in 1987.
Harry Bertoia, Important early “Dandelion” sculpture, ca. 1958. Chrome-plated tubular steel, marble, bronze, metal rods. 83 in. (210.8 cm.) high. Together with a certificate of authenticity from Val Bertoia confirming this is the first example of the "Dandelion" series to be produced. Estimate: $130,000-150,000
Mr. Minor is a devoted collector of mid-century French masters including architect and decorator Paul Dupré-Lafon. The Design sale will offer a number of works by Dupré-Lafon from Mr. Minor’s collection including a rare and important drop-front writing cabinet, veneered with Macassar ebony and finished in Hermès leather, ca. 1940, estimated at $100,000-150,000.
Mr. Minor, a distinguished collector of contemporary art and design, assembled his collection as he built his business, with enthusiasm and unswerving devotion.
Jean Royère
Phillips de Pury’s Design department continues to offer major works by Jean Royère whose elaborate upholstery and voluptuous forms were a reflection of the buoyant mood of postwar France. Both sculptural and playful, Royère’s silhouettes are a dynamic counterpoint to the strict lines of Modernism.
The Design department will offer a rare Salon Sculpture sofa and pair of armchairs, ca. 1955, at $180,000-220,000. The sofa and chairs, anchoring the sale’s group of works by Royère, are sterling examples of French mid-century design: their shapely lines offer surprising lightness and grace. Another major highlight by Royère is a free-form coffee table, ca. 1957, with wrought iron ring feet. The work, known as a Yo-Yo table, will be sold with an estimate of $80,000-100,000.
Perriand & Prouvé
Designers Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé stood hand-in-hand at midcentury, the pragmatic parents of postwar modernism in France. Together they devised economic solutions to the problems of daily life in everyday places: schools, dormitories, offices. Their highly-collectible works continue to attract strong attention from collectors.
The Phillips de Pury Design department will offer key works from these designers including a Very rare curved cabinet, ca. 1960, by Perriand, estimated at $140,000-180,000; as well as a Tunisie bookcase, ca. 1952, by both designers, from the Maison de la Tunisie, Cité Universitaire, Paris, with an estimate of $80,000-120,000. A selection of works by Prouvé include two very rare façade panels, 1949-1950, from the elementary school at Bouqueval, France with respective estimates of $60,000-90,000 and $80,000-120,000.
Chandigarh
In 1947, after the partition of India, Prime Minister Nehru commissioned the planning and construction of Chandigarh, a model city which would serve as the new capital of the Punjab and would be built in the foothills of the Himalayas. In the 1950s Swiss architects and designers Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret undertook the design and completion of the capital complex, including sectors for housing, government offices, industry, and commerce.
Phillips de Pury will offer a selection of works from Chandigarh including, among others, a Solar Day bas-relief by Le Corbusier with an estimate of $18,000-24,000 as well as a Demountable desk by Jeanneret with an estimate of $35,000-45,000.
Early Bertoia Sculpture
In 1957, renowned American designer and sculptor Harry Bertoia travelled to Italy on a grant from the Graham Foundation to study early Greek and Etruscan works. Newly energized, he returned home and began creating freestanding three-dimensional works that expressed “joy and energy by radiating outward.”
Shortly after his trip, he conceived his Dandelion series of sculptures, the first of which, according to his son Val Bertoia, the Phillips Design department will offer in June with an estimate of $130,000-150,000. Standing nearly 7 feet, his Dandelion sculpture is a literal representation of that flower with clearly articulated “seeds” comprising welded metal rods.
Contemporary Venetian Glass
Phillips de Pury & Company continues to champion works by key contemporary glass designers working in the furnaces of Murano. Continuing a thousand-year tradition of Venetian glassblowing, four artists in particular represent the future of Italian art glass. In its June auction, the Design department proudly offers hand-blown and shaped vases by Yoichi Ohira, Laura de Santillana, and Ritsue Mishima, and a hand-blown glass sculpture by Cristiano Bianchin. All four artists were exhibited in 2009 at the 53rd Venice Biennale.
Mid-Century Scandinavian
The restrained lines and expert craftsmanship of Scandinavian design have enjoyed strong recent appeal, a sign that serious collectors remain committed to well-built, considered works. Phillips de Pury continues to offer the finest examples of this robust category.
The Scandinavian highlights in the June New York auction include a rare wingback armchair by Frits Henningsen, ca. 1935, which bears an estimate of $50,000-70,000. The dramatic shaped backrest and animated cabriole legs of the chair lend it a vital energy. In keeping with that organic form, the Design department will also offer a massive Knobbed-style vessel, 1950s, by renowned Danish ceramicist Axel Salto. The work will be sold with an estimate of $12,000-18,000. Other highlights include a Grasshopper chaise longue, ca. 1968, by Preben Fabricius & Jørgen Kastholm, with an estimate of $15,000-20,000, as well as a rare pair of Skater chromed steel and leather chairs, ca. 1968, by the same designers and with an estimate of $20,000-25,000.
Studio Ceramics
The Phillips de Pury Design department continues to champion the highly collectible works of British studio ceramicists Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, two towering figures of 20th-century ceramics, both of whom worked together for a period in Rie’s Albion Mews studio in London. Of the nearly fifty lots from important private collections, highlights include an extremely rare late Cycladic bud pot ,1976, by Coper, estimated at $60,000-90,000 and a Monumental sack pot with disc (ca. 1974), also by Coper, estimated at $50,000-70,000. Of Rie’s many lovely works on offer, a standout is her Exceptional tall flattened vase, ca. 1970, at $20,000-30,000, noted for its white flowing glaze and delicate manganese speckle.
Contemporary Design
Phillips de Pury, a market leader in contemporary design, continues to offer works by significant cutting-edge designers including Atelier Van Lieshout, Rick Owens, Ron Arad, Iván Navarro, and the Campana Brothers.
In total, the Phillips de Pury & Company Design auction will include 229 lots of important 20th-century and contemporary design from a range of categories including French mid-century, Scandinavian mid-century, American studio craft, British studio ceramics, Venetian glass, and contemporary limited edition design, among others.
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