For our 25th anniversary auction, we were able again to acquire almost 200 very interesting, extremely rare, particularly beautiful and truly exceptional objects under the title 'Schools of Design'.

In the field of Art Nouveau, the elegantly curved designs by universal genius Henry van de Velde are particularly captivating: his 'Havana' armchair from 1897, which took its name from the cigar store of the same name on Mohrenstraße in Berlin, is hardly ever found on the international auction market. It was acquired in the early 1970s at the famous Galerie L'Ecuyer in Brussels and now comes to auction at an estimate of € 15,000 - 25,000. Only two copies of van de Velde's document folder are known: the one offered here and one in which the congratulatory address of the Chamber of Crafts of the Grand Duchy of Saxony was presented at the event of the marriage of Grand Duke Wilhelm Ernst to Caroline von Reuss. Its estimate of € 6,000 - 9,000 seems completely appropriate.

The greatest sensation, however, can be inspected directly in the Hamburg Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe: Peter Behrens' pianino with serial number 48068 was part of a living room ensemble created by the famous designer for the Berlin department store Wertheim in 1905. You can find the whole ensemble illustrated in the magazine Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, vol. XVI. Our research revealed that there were only three versions of the model in existence. Made of different kinds of wood, these were all considered lost until our specimen was temporarily made available by the owner to the Museum of Applied Arts in Cologne, on the occasion of an exhibition celebrating the 150th birthday of all-round genius Peter Behrens.

Italian Radical Design at its finest can be seen in the armchair 'Joe'. This is a design by the designer trio DePas, D'Urbino, Lomazzi from the early 1970s. An oversized baseball glove as a seat! - revolutionary at the time (with ottoman, favorably estimated at € 7.000 - 9.000). Also uncompromising is the loop-shaped seat 'Dondolo' from 1975, reduced only to the essentials. Designed by Franca Stagi and Cesare Leonardi and produced only in small numbers, the plastic icon was discovered by the consignor in a garden in Veneto and restored perfectly. The estimate is at a reasonable € 12.000 - 18.000.

Rare lamps by Angelo Lelli (‚Triennale' floor lamp, 1947 for € 6.000 - 7.000 and 'Cobra', circa 1962 for € 3.000 - 4.000), Gino Sarfatti (‚2047B' ceiling light, 1952 for € 2.800 - 3.200) Vico Magistretti ('Impiccato', € 1.800 - 2. 200 and 'Melilla 470', € 900 -1.200) and Max Ingrand (three ceiling lights, circa 1960, € 5.500 - 6.000) as well as Gaetano Pesce's extraordinary 'Canovacci' wall light in the shape of a glass tea towel (€ 4.000 - 5.000) complete the offer.

Show auction...