Lighting

Lamps designed by surrealist artist Salvador Dalí have been blocked from export in the hope a buyer can be found to pay £440,000 to keep them in the UK.

A group of more than 100 metal light fittings designed for a major French housing complex by Le Corbusier (aka Charles Edouard Jeanneret) has been unexpectedly withdrawn from a design sale at the French auction house Artcurial.

Fancy a piece of the opulent Mandarin Oriental hotel in your own living room?

The J Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles has acquired an important collection of 18th century French decorative arts assembled by Dr Horace Wood (Woody) Brock, one of the world’s foremost economists.

The work of designer and architect William Arthur Smith Benson (1854-1924) entered a new price arena when this silvered brass ceiling light sold for £23,000 at Mallams Oxford.

The unexpected high point of the latest sale held at Sheffield Auction Gallery was this rare survivor – one of two miner’s lamps entered for sale by a local vendor.

The highlight of Lyon & Turnbull’s sale of Decorative Arts was this copper and brass electrolier made in the workshops of the designer and architect William Arthur Smith Benson c.1900.

SPECIALIST auctioneers, Ocean Liner Auctions have been instructed to sell what they consider to be the largest and finest collection of fixtures and fittings from RMS Olympic since the vessel was broken up almost 69 years ago.

THE highlight of a 15-piece collection of Wedgwood ceramics offered for sale by Kidson-Trigg (15% buyer’s premium) of Highworth on May 26-27 was a pair of Wedgwood & Bentley black basalt oil lamps (one shown top right) that would have represented the height of fashion c.1775.

THE strength of the decorative market was underlined by a number of lots offered by Woolley & Wallis, (15% buyer’s premium) on March 16, including the day’s best seller, a pair of c.1860 bronze and ormolu twin-light candelabra, one shown right.

The Continental Furniture sale at Sotheby’s Bond Street on December 10 proved something of a struggle, just like the furniture elements offered the following day by their King Street competitors. Only half the 241 lots got away, with demand focussed more than ever on the rarest top quality.

PIMLICO-based furniture designer David Linley pays homage to Art Deco with his latest furniture launch, the Salon Collection, comprising a console table, side table, coffee table, cabinet, sofa and mirror, all currently available from Linley, 60 Pimlico Road, London SW1.

One of the more mysterious objects at Lyon and Turnbull’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) decorative arts sale in Edinburgh on November 6 was this Art Nouveau pewter table lamp. Auctioneer John Mackie could not comment on why the futuristic design, measuring 2ft (60.5cm) high and apparantly unmarked, should have eclipsed a forecast of £300-500 and reached £6500.

PIMLICO dealer Alexander von Moltke has formed a partnership with the Manhattan interior designers Robert Marinelli and Michael Reeves who operate as RMMR.

Villa Bombrini Sale: TWO days before their main mixed owner European furniture sale, Christie’s also offered a separate single owner auction – Furniture and Works of Art removed from Villa Bombrini, ‘Il Paradiso’, Genoa – on December 11. Just over 300 lots were offered, of which three quarters found buyers – selling to the tune of £1,134,280.

Tiffany Favrile glass brought the biggest money at Sotheby’s (20/15/10% buyer’s premium) 407-lot 20th Century Works of Art, June 5. Foremost was a privately consigned Favrile glass and bronze dogwood cone chandelier, 3ft 4in (1m), with chains, ceiling cap and verdigris patina.