Green Table, right, is a slightly later,
slightly less disturbing variant made in 1972 in an edition of six, onbrings £320,000e of which was included in Christie’s South Kensington’s (17.5/10% buyer’s premium) July 3 sale of Twentieth Century British Art. Perhaps mindful of the piece’s long-term commercial appeal, Jones has dispensed with the mirror and the model now appears to be wearing a tasteful Jolly Green Giant-coloured body stocking.
According to expert-in-charge William Porter, this particular example,
estimated at £10,000-15,000 was in “untouched, original condition with only slight wear to the leather” and this was the first time the piece had appeared at auction for at least ten years.
On the day, two private collectors and two dealers expressed serious interest in the piece before a European dealer finally
triumphed with a sale-topping bid of £32,000.
This would seem to be the going rate for Jones’ Table, as the last one to have appeared on the market, if Mr Porter’s memory serves him correctly, fetched around £30,000.
Table stakes stay constant as icon sells at £32,000
ONE of the most provocative icons of the British Pop Art movement is Allen Jones’ (b.1937) Table. The original 1969 version of this work – listed in Volker Kahmen’s Eroticism in Contemporary Art as being in the Collection Ludwig, Aachen – was an uncompromising fetish object showing the life-size model naked apart from her leather boots, gloves and bodice gazing at herself in a mirror.
