Art Nouveau - Art Deco

Aficionados of arts and crafts and design from around 1900 will be spoiled for choice at the auction on December 9, with a high-quality collection of objects, lighting design, and furniture.

Glass, furniture, ceramics, and porcelain, among others, offer a number of treasures.

In the glass selection, Henri Bergé was responsible for a particularly rare version of the ‘Pluviose’ vases. The intercalaire painting and the diagonal wheel-cut finish on the surface makes one feel as if one can literally hear the wind and rain lashing down on the trees (SP 4,000 - 6,000 euros). The baluster vase with the unusual corn cob decoration by the Daum brothers should also be of particular interest. Here, included precious metal foils give the corn kernels an unusual plasticity. Its estimated price is 3,000-4,000 euros.

The beautiful marquetry vase with a cloverleaf opening, ‘Paysage et Papillons’, dates from around 1900 and was created by Emile Gallé. The three butterflies in orange and violet fly across the cylindrical wall above the outlined treetops. This beautiful piece is expected to fetch between 5,000 and 6,000 euros.

Insects play a major role in the artist's work, so it is not surprising that Gallé also used the butterfly motif on the door of his rare ‘Ombellifères’ wall cabinet from the same year (SP 3,000 - 5,000 EURO). The dragonfly also occupies a special place in Emile Gallé's oeuvre. He used the insect as a motif as early as 1881 for ceramic works, and later for a wide variety of glass designs. In his rare 'Libellules' tea table, the main lot in our auction, three dragonflies carved in relief form the supports that hold up a six-pass or trefoil-shaped top. On the upper six-pass top, the insect blends seamlessly into the elaborate marquetry landscape with a pond and water lilies. Interested buyers should expect to invest at least €30,000–40,000 for this piece of furniture, which can be traced back to family ownership since the 1920s.

Fans of Art Nouveau ceramics will certainly take great pleasure in the beautiful ‚Owl’ vase by Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer for Delphin Massier, circa 1890. This unique piece, which has been in private ownership since the 1970s, is now valued at 4,500-5,500 euros. The prize for the race at the Freudenau racecourse near Vienna in 1908 is also special. The Hungarian postal service immortalized the duo of riders galloping wildly on a stamp commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Vilmos Zsolnay factory in 2004. It is expected to fetch at least 5,000-6,000 euros.

A floor vase by Hermann Gradl is also particularly unusual. In collaboration with Villeroy & Boch and the Orivit metal goods factory, the significant handle vase was created, which continues the elaborate underwater decoration of the body in its tin mounting in semi- and full-relief. Despite a missing piece, 9,000 - 12,000 EURO should be a good investment.

The Art Nouveau - Art Deco auction on Tuesday, December 9, attracted considerable interest from German and international collectors.

A wonderful collection of high-quality vases from the Daum Frères workshops and early works by Emile Gallé took center stage. The top lot, an Intercalaire vase ‘Pluviose’, circa 1900, was hotly contested by several telephone bidders and customers on various platforms, eventually fetching EUR 30,000. Emile Gallé's ‘Marqueterie’ vase ‘Paysage et Papillons’, circa 1900, climbed to EUR 18,000. One of Franz Hagenauer's iconic female heads was secured by a Munich collector. The abstract work in the style of Constantin Brancusi was worth EUR 20,000 to the bidder (lot 162).

Early figures by KPM Meissen from the pen of Johannes Schilling, ‘Der Mittag’ (‘Midday’), ‘Die Nacht’ (‘Night’) and ‘Der Abend’ (‘Evening’) went to the USA for EUR 15,000 each after a long bidding battle between three international collectors. A series of 27 figures by the Viennese company Friedrich Goldscheider also came from the same collection. The elegant dancers continue to enjoy great popularity, so it is not surprising that almost all of them found new owners.

A Munich collector secured the ‘Dancer in Butterfly Costume’, the rarer counterpart to the ‘Captive Bird’, for EUR 6,500 (lot 320). The impressive ‘Underwater’ vase by Hermann Gradl for Orivit, whose decoration is echoed by the pewter mounting, confirmed its estimate at EUR 8,000 (lot 23).