Art Of The Day Weekly
#362 - from 30 October 2014 to 5 November 2014
Lot 63 - Jean-Michel Frank and Adolphe Chanaux, a pair of round-shaped guéridons, circa 1935. 64x51 cm. Provenance : Carlos Maria Alvear, Palais Sans-Souci, Buenos Aires. Estimate: €20,000-30,000.
Art deco: the road to Buenos Aires
HYÈRES - The Noailles family is constantly in the limelight, even indirectly. Following the issue of Sade’s scroll of 120 Days of Sodoma (which was theirs and is now exhibited at the musée des Lettres et Manuscrits), and while the beautiful Baccarat retrospective is held at the Petit Palais (their apartment on place des Etats-Unis, redecorated by Philippe Starck, is the showroom of the brand), it is their villa at Hyères (designed by Mallet-Stevens) that will occupy the front line. Indeed it has been chosen as the setting for an Art Deco auction based on an unbeatable argument: these pieces of furniture could have furnished it at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s when the daily visitors included Man Ray and Buñuel, Cocteau and Lifar. The lots include include pieces by Dupré-Lafon or André Groult, lamps by Perzel or Boris Lacroix, sculptures by the Martel twins. The most spectacular lot comes from Buenos Aires, from the former Lectoure collection, and from the Palais Sans-Souci, built in 1916 by architect René Sargent for the Alvear family. The palace has been the property of the Durini, a family of Italian aristocrats, for the last 50 years. Today it reveals a few gems by Jean-Michel Frank – brass pedestal tables, tables in shagreen. It is only fair that a part of the profits of the sale should be handed over to villa Noailles to finance their acquisitions and activities.
• Art déco at Villa Noailles (sale organised by SVV Damien Leclère, Marseille), on 5 November 2014.