Art Mart: Deathless design
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Art and design blend in the salerooms this week. For the very rich, Christie's natural history sale next Tuesday (2.30pm) offers a Turkish album, from about 1725, at an estimated pounds 100,000-pounds 150,000. It contains exquisite watercolours of 42 cross-bred varieties of tulip - all now extinct. The Ottoman court in Istanbul was gripped by tulip mania at the time - nearly 100 years after the Dutch and English crazes.
This glass "handkerchief" vase from Murano, Italy, from about 1950, looks more like a modern tulip than a hankie. The shape has become fashionable. The technically accomplished latticework adds value - as does the highly collectable date. Estimate pounds 500-pounds 700 in Christie's London sale of British and Continental decorative arts, tomorrow (10.30am).
Designer buttocks? Or just a rounded riposte to Cubism? This cheeky 1927 Art Deco oil on canvas by Walter Krehn, entitled Curtain Call, is expected to fetch pounds 1,000-pounds 1,500 in the same sale.
Not exactly buttock-friendly is this jokey, giant-sized tilting chair, designed by Alessandro Mendini for trendy Italian furniture makers Alchimia in 1983. A unique piece, clad in mirror glass, it's an expensive joke, with an estimate of pounds 15,000-pounds 20,000, among 127 lots of Italian avant-garde design in Sotheby's sale "Design Since 1935", tomorrow at 10.30am.
Much cheaper (even a medical student might afford it) - is Nazareno Noja's plastic-coated female silhouette, apparently gynaecologically inspired, also from Alchimia and dated 1976. It is estimated to reach pounds 200-pounds 300 in the same sale.
An in-joke among the gem set: corny jewellery by respectable makers. This daft duck brooch, by Piaget, of the late Sixties has an emerald eye and carved coral beak and feet. The estimate is pounds 850-pounds 950 in Christie's South Kensington's sale of 20th-century jewellery, next Tuesday at 2pm.
Much older, cheaper and not half so silly: a recumbent, blue-and-white Chinese porcelain cat from the 18th century, designed as a translucent night light with illuminated eye sockets. It's estimated to sell for pounds 600-pounds 800, the last lot in Christie's South Kensington's sale of oriental ceramics and artworks, Thursday at 10.30am and 2pm.
Christie's: 0171-839 9060; Christie's South Kensington: 0171-581 7611; Sotheby's 0171-293 5000.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments