The auctioneers fielded an offering that featured sizeable selections by some of the most commercially appealing names in this arena: 16 works by Claude and François- Xavier Lalanne; 18 by Jean Royère and 17 by Diego Giacometti. With 104 of the 129 lots finding buyers, it was well received, as evident from a premium-inclusive total of nearly €10m/£9m (€8m/£7.2m hammer).
The top lot of the sale was not a piece by any of the four names cited but a one-off by the Cubist sculptor Joseph Csaky.
This hitherto unpublished head pictured above, in rock crystal with obsidian additions, was the first acquisition from the sculptor by the couturier Jacques Doucet c.1925. It stood in his Parisian studio and has passed down by descent through the family.
The 13½in (34cm) high head is both a unique Art Deco objet de luxe and an early example of Cubist sculpture.
Estimated at €150,000-200,000, it was pursued to no less than €765,000 (£695,455), far in excess of the previous auction high of €320,000 (then £266,670), paid in the same rooms in 2014 for the sculptor’s Poisson Fontaine in the Félix Marcillac collection.
