Auction 115C


24. June 2014


Catalogue


International Design and Postwar and Contemporary Art successfully combined: More than 500 lots had been on offer on June 24 in the best tradition of the house of Quittenbaum. The gross proceeds amount to about € 300,000.

The choice was ambitious: As part of the new increasing sector 'Postwar and Contemporary Art' a Berlin based private collector allowed € 7,650 incl. buyer's premium for Martin Kippenberger's 'Roger E.A.' prototype sculpture. The Polish market secured Jan Tarasin's abstract composition for € 20,400 incl. buyer's premium and thus effected a remarkable hammer price for the member of the Cracow group. Quittenbaum obtained another respectable price for an Eastern European artist, for a 'Structure' sculpture by Zdenek Sykora, Czech Republic, from the 1960s, which increased its estimate price tenfold from € 800 up to € 8,300.

Renate Müller's toy animals were the secret stars of the German Design section: A private collector increased the price for two endearing hippos to € 1,084 incl. buyer's premium (estimate € 300/400) respectively € 2,550 (estimate € 500/600) an all-time high for the pachyderms of burlap that were promoted to design classics in the meantime.

Two trends became visible from the auction's results: On the one hand, international design of the 1980s and 1990s becomes more and more popular. This is witnessed by strong results for Danny Lane's one-off table, c1985 (€ 3,188 incl.), Heinz H. Landes' 'Solid' chair from the year 1993 (€ 3,953 incl.), Hans Peter Münch's 'Tapetti per I sposi' carpet designed in 1990, Humberto and Fernando Campana's 'Vermelha chair', 1993 (€ 5,610 incl.) and the 'Spirit of Art' coffee set by Keith Haring, 1991 for Villeroy & Boch (€ 2,805 incl.). On the other hand, it is the French Design that is popular at Quittenbaum's outside the French market: A Japanese collector paid willingly € 10,080 for Pierre Jeanneret's 'Chandigarh' daybed, German and British private collectors consistently allowed hammer prices within the estimate range for the design classics 'LC-1' and 'LC-2' by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand.

Jean Prouvés 'Visiteur Kangourou' armchair from the 'Abatucci' barracks in Volgelsheim/Alsace was the highlight of the auction. An American collector honored the combination of precise design and indisputable provenience with € 31,875 incl. buyer's premium.