Christie’s South Kensington’s all-day, 465-lot event had two particularly strong accents. In the morning they offered 110 lots of Lalique glass while the afternoon featured 159 lots of sculpture, mostly in Art Deco style in ceramic, bronze or bronze and ivory plus other examples of Continental Art glass, both Deco and Nouveau, metalwares and works on paper. With 61 per cent sold by lottage and a slightly higher 66 per cent by value on a total that netted just under £447,000, this sale had its downs as well as its ups.
This was most noticeable in the morning Lalique section where just over a third of the entries, including many of the highest estimated pieces, failed to change hands and in the other glasswares, works on paper and miscellaneous metalwares.
The final sculpture section saw the best overall response, although even here there were casualties amongst some of the most expensive bronze and ivory models like Chiparus’ double figure study Tender Moments which failed at £28,000 against expectations of £35,000-40,000, but the designer’s 2ft 1in (65cm) wide seated dancer study Tanara fared better at £17,000 as did his 181/2in (47cm) high Ayouta figure at £15,000. Top price of the day at £18,000 was paid for the Ferdinand Preiss 141/2in (37cm) high Autumn Dancer pictured above.
The Decorative Mix....
Christie’s South Kensington : May 15 was a crowded day in the Decorative Arts calendar. Both Christie’s South Kensington and Bonhams’ Bond Street rooms fielded sizeable decorative arts selections, much of it of crossover interest, which presumably presented potential buyers with something of a dilemma when it came to deciding which sale to attend in person.
