20th Century Design

I posted earlier on the AW Blog about the lackluster sales of Phillips 20th century design auction, within that post I also mentioned I was picking up signals of the sector starting to cool off (click HERE to read the post). The Art Newspaper has an article stating the 20th Century design market in June has been very mixed, with some poor sales, including Design Miami Basel, a poor sale at Wrights in Chicago, the poor Phillips and Sotheby's sale (sales were good, but were saved by Tiffany glass) to be followed by a decent sale later in the month as Wrights.

As appraisers, it is our responsibility to follow market trends and to be aware of demand.Market analysis is a large part of what we do, so this article and some of the less than expected sales in 20th century design certainly are starting to add up to signs of slowing market sector.

The Art Newspaper reports

Collectors holding out for the tenth annual Design Miami Basel featuring the cream of the crop offerings made for slack results at the early June round of 20th-century design auctions.

The softening of sales set in as early as the Windy City Wright 8 June auction. At that sale, Wright hammered down $1,838,271 (est $3m-$4.3m) with 56.7% sold by lot and 50.4% sold by value.

Even so, a Le Corbusier concrete light fixture from Chandigarh Zoo, 1960 made $36,500 ($20,000-$25,000). But a cache of Pierre Jeanneret furniture had weak results with a Chandigarh library table, 1960 (est $100,000-$120,000) passing.

Then Phillips, de Pury & Company 9 June auction brought in $4.9m (est $5.2m-$7.4m). Sell rates were 67 percent by lot and 72 percent by value. Particularly telling was the cover lot, Marc Newson’s aluminum Pod of drawers, 1987 from the Halsey Minor collection going to an anonymous telephone bidder in a near empty auction room for $350,000 ($300,000-$500,000). Too much Newson was on the market. Surprisingly vessels by English ceramicists Lucie Rie and Hans Coper sparked strong prices. Rie's hand wrought Large Bowl (est. $14,000-18,000) jumped to $74,500.

To read the full article, click HERE.