Modern Furniture
In addition to Lalanne.
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Furniture Art Deco Chairs and seats Modern tables Women artists
Chronology : 1920
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Furniture Art Deco Chairs and seats Modern tables Women artists
Chronology : 1920
1893 Coca-Cola Soda Fountain
2012 SOLD for $ 5.3M by Richard Opfer
The nineteenth century saw the birth of a tremendously effective initiative: the world's expositions, where the public comes to see by themselves the qualities of industrial products. In Chicago in 1893, the World's Columbian Exposition enabled the triumph of the applications of electricity.
A booth made by the Liquid Carbonic Company for the Columbian has been preserved. This double marble and alabaster furniture is made of a heavily decorated back wall 6 meters long and of a counter to accommodate the drinkers. Two soda fountains, each one equipped with three valves, are positioned on the counter.
This piece is decorated with Coca-Cola ads that are not original but nevertheless mark the moods of that time.
The fetish American drink was indeed invented shortly before by a pharmacist, under the influence of temperance societies. The method of public distribution in vogue at that time is the fountain of carbonated water, believed to be favorable to health. The sales of bottled Coca-Cola will start only on the following year.
This booth witnessing the style of an obsolete era is the star lot of the second sale of the Schmidt Coca-Cola Museum, held on March 25, 2012 by Richard Opfer. It was sold for $ 5.3M from a lower estimate of $ 75K, lot 540 here linked to the LiveAuctioneers bidding platform. It is in the background during the sale in this video shared by CokeConversations on YouTube.
A booth made by the Liquid Carbonic Company for the Columbian has been preserved. This double marble and alabaster furniture is made of a heavily decorated back wall 6 meters long and of a counter to accommodate the drinkers. Two soda fountains, each one equipped with three valves, are positioned on the counter.
This piece is decorated with Coca-Cola ads that are not original but nevertheless mark the moods of that time.
The fetish American drink was indeed invented shortly before by a pharmacist, under the influence of temperance societies. The method of public distribution in vogue at that time is the fountain of carbonated water, believed to be favorable to health. The sales of bottled Coca-Cola will start only on the following year.
This booth witnessing the style of an obsolete era is the star lot of the second sale of the Schmidt Coca-Cola Museum, held on March 25, 2012 by Richard Opfer. It was sold for $ 5.3M from a lower estimate of $ 75K, lot 540 here linked to the LiveAuctioneers bidding platform. It is in the background during the sale in this video shared by CokeConversations on YouTube.
1920 Fauteuil aux Dragons by Gray
2009 SOLD for € 22M by Christie's
The estate sale of the collection of the fashion designer Yves Saint-Laurent was jointly organized by Christie's and Pierre Bergé et Associés from 23 to 25 February, 2009. The furniture of the 20th century was led by an armchair made by Eileen Gray around 1920-1922, sold for € 22M from a lower estimate of € 2.5M.
This seat is only 61 cm high. The sitting height is normal, but the back is small. It is large (91 cm), making it a comfortable chair. It is named the Fauteuil aux Dragons for the sculptures of its armrests.
On June 1, 2005, Camard had separated a suite of six armchairs à la Sirène. They had belonged from 1923 to Damia, the music hall singer woman with whom Eileen had a love affair. From a very different model from the fauteuil aux dragons, their sculpture of the women fish was enhanced by an open back. The highest result was € 1.75M.
This seat is only 61 cm high. The sitting height is normal, but the back is small. It is large (91 cm), making it a comfortable chair. It is named the Fauteuil aux Dragons for the sculptures of its armrests.
On June 1, 2005, Camard had separated a suite of six armchairs à la Sirène. They had belonged from 1923 to Damia, the music hall singer woman with whom Eileen had a love affair. From a very different model from the fauteuil aux dragons, their sculpture of the women fish was enhanced by an open back. The highest result was € 1.75M.
1937 Enfilade by Printz and Dunand
2019 SOLD for $ 5.5M by Christie's
Eugène Printz, a cabinetmaker, had worked with Chareau. Jean Dunand, a decorator, is a lacquerer and dinandier, specialist in bright surfaces and already famous for his panels and his screens. The dinanderie is the art of using non-precious metals in decoration.
Their skills are complementary and their fruitful collaboration lasts from 1928 until the death of Dunand in 1942. Their joint production consists mainly of sideboards : buffets, enfilades, bahuts. The style meets the canons of Art Déco : geometric simplicity of forms, beauty of surfaces.
A cabinet 125 x 160 x 30 cm made in 1930-1931 by Printz and Dunand was sold for € 1,26M by Christie's on November 27, 2007, lot 331.
A cabinet in enfilade 93 x 200 x 44 cm made circa 1937 was sold for $ 5.5M by Christie's on June 4, 2019, lot 43. This enfilade had been kept by Printz for his own collection. It is indeed a superb example of the later period of the French Art Déco.
Its rectangular cabinet in palmwood is perfectly balanced, altogether low and shallow to provide a sense of lightness. Its suite of ten doors cover the whole height of the façade, with no visible structure or handle.
It is also exceptional by the full covering of all the door panels in a dinanderie of various patterns on angled metal leaves, suggesting the folds of a Japanese screen. These fragile elements have been kept in an excellent condition.
Their skills are complementary and their fruitful collaboration lasts from 1928 until the death of Dunand in 1942. Their joint production consists mainly of sideboards : buffets, enfilades, bahuts. The style meets the canons of Art Déco : geometric simplicity of forms, beauty of surfaces.
A cabinet 125 x 160 x 30 cm made in 1930-1931 by Printz and Dunand was sold for € 1,26M by Christie's on November 27, 2007, lot 331.
A cabinet in enfilade 93 x 200 x 44 cm made circa 1937 was sold for $ 5.5M by Christie's on June 4, 2019, lot 43. This enfilade had been kept by Printz for his own collection. It is indeed a superb example of the later period of the French Art Déco.
Its rectangular cabinet in palmwood is perfectly balanced, altogether low and shallow to provide a sense of lightness. Its suite of ten doors cover the whole height of the façade, with no visible structure or handle.
It is also exceptional by the full covering of all the door panels in a dinanderie of various patterns on angled metal leaves, suggesting the folds of a Japanese screen. These fragile elements have been kept in an excellent condition.
1950 Italy at Work by Mollino
2020 SOLD for $ 6.2M by Sotheby's
Architect and interior designer, Carlo Mollino has led his career as a synthesis of his exuberant passions : high-flying, skiing, photography, women. After the war, independently of each other, Mollino and Noguchi design the furniture of the future.
The architect observes the solidity of the construction of the human skeleton. The structure of his tables and chairs takes the forms of rib cage and spine. Mollino thus brings sensuality to his furniture, which does not need an additional ornament. Above this openwork, the table top is in transparent glass.
On June 9, 2005, Christie's sold for $ 3.8M from a lower estimate of $ 150K a 73 x 157 x 86 cm oak dining table designed by Mollino in 1948 and manufactured in 1949 by Apelli e Varesio in Turin.
After the war, Italy looked for new solutions for its reconstruction. An exhibition entitled Italy at Work is dedicated by a consortium of US museums to the renaissance of Italian design. Mollino is invited to prepare the furnishings for an all purpose room.
The main piece of furniture for Mollino's participation in Italy at Work is a dining table, 77 x 250 x 80 cm, designed in 1949 and made in 1950 in plywood, maple and brass by Apelli e Varesio. The technical feat adds to the artistic novelty : his use of large-scale molded plywood is unprecedented in the history of furniture.
The table returns in 1954 to the Brooklyn Museum after the traveling exhibition by a gift from the Italian government. It was sold for $ 6.2M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 16, for the support of the museum's collections. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The architect observes the solidity of the construction of the human skeleton. The structure of his tables and chairs takes the forms of rib cage and spine. Mollino thus brings sensuality to his furniture, which does not need an additional ornament. Above this openwork, the table top is in transparent glass.
On June 9, 2005, Christie's sold for $ 3.8M from a lower estimate of $ 150K a 73 x 157 x 86 cm oak dining table designed by Mollino in 1948 and manufactured in 1949 by Apelli e Varesio in Turin.
After the war, Italy looked for new solutions for its reconstruction. An exhibition entitled Italy at Work is dedicated by a consortium of US museums to the renaissance of Italian design. Mollino is invited to prepare the furnishings for an all purpose room.
The main piece of furniture for Mollino's participation in Italy at Work is a dining table, 77 x 250 x 80 cm, designed in 1949 and made in 1950 in plywood, maple and brass by Apelli e Varesio. The technical feat adds to the artistic novelty : his use of large-scale molded plywood is unprecedented in the history of furniture.
The table returns in 1954 to the Brooklyn Museum after the traveling exhibition by a gift from the Italian government. It was sold for $ 6.2M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on October 28, 2020, lot 16, for the support of the museum's collections. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1952 Chandelier by Alberto Giacometti
2018 SOLD for £ 7.6M by Sotheby's
In 1947 and 1948 Alberto Giacometti defined his existentialist pantheon with his primordial trinity and some accessories including the cage.
For their friends the Giacometti brothers also remain the pre-war decorators who created models of furnishing for Frank. Diego continues in this specialty and Alberto still accepts some private orders. A plaster chandelier with geometric figures made by Alberto in 1954 for the Tériade apartment was sold for £ 2.05M by Phillips on April 26, 2017.
Louis Broder was a Swiss publisher. For his Paris apartment he commissioned in 1948 to Alberto a chandelier adorned with his new characters. The original plaster, 60 cm high and 136 cm in diameter, was supplied in 1949 or 1950 to Broder and donated in 1983 by Berggruen to the Centre Pompidou.
This private work is an interesting synthesis of Giacometti's metaphysics. The central position is a gloriette in which the Femme debout opens her arms, holding two side columns as if she was ready to go out for discovering the world. She has the main role, superseding the ephemeral Homme au doigt.
The Homme qui marche starts away from the cage in a centrifugal force that ignores the existence of the woman. Smaller than her, he does not have the importance he would like to have. The trinity is completed on the other side by a bird. The four lights are installed in crocus flowers.
In 1952 Alberto made three bronzes of this chandelier, also for Broder. One of them was sold for £ 7.6M from a lower estimate of £ 6M for sale by Sotheby's on February 28, 2018, lot 4.
For their friends the Giacometti brothers also remain the pre-war decorators who created models of furnishing for Frank. Diego continues in this specialty and Alberto still accepts some private orders. A plaster chandelier with geometric figures made by Alberto in 1954 for the Tériade apartment was sold for £ 2.05M by Phillips on April 26, 2017.
Louis Broder was a Swiss publisher. For his Paris apartment he commissioned in 1948 to Alberto a chandelier adorned with his new characters. The original plaster, 60 cm high and 136 cm in diameter, was supplied in 1949 or 1950 to Broder and donated in 1983 by Berggruen to the Centre Pompidou.
This private work is an interesting synthesis of Giacometti's metaphysics. The central position is a gloriette in which the Femme debout opens her arms, holding two side columns as if she was ready to go out for discovering the world. She has the main role, superseding the ephemeral Homme au doigt.
The Homme qui marche starts away from the cage in a centrifugal force that ignores the existence of the woman. Smaller than her, he does not have the importance he would like to have. The trinity is completed on the other side by a bird. The four lights are installed in crocus flowers.
In 1952 Alberto made three bronzes of this chandelier, also for Broder. One of them was sold for £ 7.6M from a lower estimate of £ 6M for sale by Sotheby's on February 28, 2018, lot 4.
from 1964 François-Xavier LALANNE
See dedicated page :
Diego GIACOMETTI
Intro
Diego Giacometti was thirteen months younger than Alberto. Decorators and sculptors, they establish their studio together in Montparnasse. The pieces of furnishing that they realize in the 1930s in particular for Jean-Michel Frank appeal by their modernism.
The war separates them temporarily. At that moment their art takes very different directions. While Alberto expresses existentialism by relying on surrealism, Diego does not leave decoration and realism. He meets the desires of his customers with his nice and humorous themes where animal figures come to perch on the struts or to huddle in the table legs.
The war separates them temporarily. At that moment their art takes very different directions. While Alberto expresses existentialism by relying on surrealism, Diego does not leave decoration and realism. He meets the desires of his customers with his nice and humorous themes where animal figures come to perch on the struts or to huddle in the table legs.
1
1966-1969 Bibliothèque de l'Ile Saint-Louis
2017 SOLD for $ 6.3M by Sotheby's
In the opposite of his beloved brother Alberto, Diego Giacometti ever remained a designer and maker of furniture. Freed in 1966 by Alberto's death from his collaboration including the preparation of bronzes, he managed his own career in a simple, practical and solid style.
Made on commission in wood, metal and bronze between 1966 and 1969 for a private apartment in Paris, the Bibliothèque de l'Ile Saint-Louis is a rare monumental bookcase in two perpendicular parts, 330 cm high for a 430 x 360 cm overall floor surface.
The artist had transferred to these book shelves the signature grecques of his tables and chairs, in an elegant alternation of open and closed shelvings. The furniture is framed by an undulating gold patinated bronze. Life size birds were placed as sentinels on the top edge at each junction of the structural elements plus a single tiny tree at the top angle of the two furniture wings.
The bibliothèque was sold for $ 6.3M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2017, lot 38.
Made on commission in wood, metal and bronze between 1966 and 1969 for a private apartment in Paris, the Bibliothèque de l'Ile Saint-Louis is a rare monumental bookcase in two perpendicular parts, 330 cm high for a 430 x 360 cm overall floor surface.
The artist had transferred to these book shelves the signature grecques of his tables and chairs, in an elegant alternation of open and closed shelvings. The furniture is framed by an undulating gold patinated bronze. Life size birds were placed as sentinels on the top edge at each junction of the structural elements plus a single tiny tree at the top angle of the two furniture wings.
The bibliothèque was sold for $ 6.3M from a lower estimate of $ 2M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2017, lot 38.
2
1976 Promenade des Amis
2024 SOLD for € 9.5M by Christie's
Promenade des amis is a playful scene designed in 1976 by Diego Giacometti. It stages trees, horses and dogs in various numbers for various furnishing configurations.
The 88 cm high console table in patinated bronze with a glass top 121 x 35 cm stages on the spacer a horse with raised head confronting three dogs following one another amidst three trees with a round foliage. The first dog barks aggressively to the horse. The second dog is ready to jump and the farther dog is waiting.
An example was sold for € 9.5M from a lower estimate of € 1.5M by Christie's on December 3, 2024, lot 68.
In the same style and similar size based on a console sculpture created ca 1972 for James Lord, Biche, Arbre et Renard à l'affût, executed in 1976-1978 by Diego, was sold for € 2.93M by Ader on December 4, 2024, lot 33.
The 88 cm high console table in patinated bronze with a glass top 121 x 35 cm stages on the spacer a horse with raised head confronting three dogs following one another amidst three trees with a round foliage. The first dog barks aggressively to the horse. The second dog is ready to jump and the farther dog is waiting.
An example was sold for € 9.5M from a lower estimate of € 1.5M by Christie's on December 3, 2024, lot 68.
In the same style and similar size based on a console sculpture created ca 1972 for James Lord, Biche, Arbre et Renard à l'affût, executed in 1976-1978 by Diego, was sold for € 2.93M by Ader on December 4, 2024, lot 33.
3
1978 Hommage à Böcklin, console
2021 SOLD for $ 6.8M by Sotheby's
The glass top console Hommage à Böcklin is a tribute by Diego Giacometti to the Toteninsel by the previous Swiss artist.
Diego took for that reference the cypress trees limited to two groups of two in a degrading symmetry on both sides of a moon shaped golden disc in the interior crossbars. A contemplating owl is perched on one of the side bars.
This model was designed ca 1978. An example 90 x 110 x 34 cm in patinated and gilt bronze and patinated iron was sold for $ 6.8M from a lower estimate of $ 1M by Sotheby's on December 8, 2021, lot 118.
Diego took for that reference the cypress trees limited to two groups of two in a degrading symmetry on both sides of a moon shaped golden disc in the interior crossbars. A contemplating owl is perched on one of the side bars.
This model was designed ca 1978. An example 90 x 110 x 34 cm in patinated and gilt bronze and patinated iron was sold for $ 6.8M from a lower estimate of $ 1M by Sotheby's on December 8, 2021, lot 118.
4
1980 Hommage à Böcklin
2023 SOLD for £ 5.1M by Christie's
An example executed in 1980 in bronze and iron with green and grey patina and copper of the Hommage à Böcklin was sold for £ 5,1M from a lower estimate of £ 2M by Christie's on October 13, 2023, lot 18.
2025 Cohiba Humidor
2025 SOLD for € 4.6M by Habanos
The Habano festival is a yearly event operated in Havana by Habanos SA, the Cuban tobacco monopoly shared by Cuba and Spain. The final top luxury night gala includes an auction of humidors. Each lot is populated with cigars of a single brand. Fidel Castro, died at 90 in 2016, had sometimes served as the auctioneer.
In 2024 and 2025 all the proceeds went to Cuba's public healthcare system. The Cuban president was actively participating.
In the 2024 auction on March 1, the top lot was a Cohiba humidor, sold for € 4.5M. This cube rotating on a base is filled with 500 cigars made of regular productions and special editions. It is illustrated in last position in the post shared by Cigar Aficionado.
A Trinidad humidor celebrating the 55th anniversary of that brand was sold for € 3.8M. It is filled with 450 cigars.
A surprise lot was a smaller humidor filled with 55 Cohiba Lanceros and making reference to the Year of the Dragon for appealing the Chinese bidders. It was sold for € 550K. The five other lots sold for more than € 1M. The grand total was € 17.8M.
In the 2025 auction on February 28, the seven lots fetched € 16.4M overall. The top lot was again a Cohiba humidor, sold for € 4.6M. Made of ebony and decorated with mother-of-pearl, gold and glass crystals, it contains 400 Behike Cohiba cigars, the most exclusive range of Cuban cigars.
In 2024 and 2025 all the proceeds went to Cuba's public healthcare system. The Cuban president was actively participating.
In the 2024 auction on March 1, the top lot was a Cohiba humidor, sold for € 4.5M. This cube rotating on a base is filled with 500 cigars made of regular productions and special editions. It is illustrated in last position in the post shared by Cigar Aficionado.
A Trinidad humidor celebrating the 55th anniversary of that brand was sold for € 3.8M. It is filled with 450 cigars.
A surprise lot was a smaller humidor filled with 55 Cohiba Lanceros and making reference to the Year of the Dragon for appealing the Chinese bidders. It was sold for € 550K. The five other lots sold for more than € 1M. The grand total was € 17.8M.
In the 2025 auction on February 28, the seven lots fetched € 16.4M overall. The top lot was again a Cohiba humidor, sold for € 4.6M. Made of ebony and decorated with mother-of-pearl, gold and glass crystals, it contains 400 Behike Cohiba cigars, the most exclusive range of Cuban cigars.
