Furniture

Unmistakably the work of the Viennese avant-garde, this gem-set silver plated table clock sold for €205,000 (£186,000) at a recent sale held by the Rotterdam auctioneer Vendu Notarishuis.

An Edwardian Carlton House satinwood desk of the type which was once a best-seller at auction, but an early casualty of the furniture slump, was back in favour at the Hartleys (17.5% buyer’s premium) summer sale in Ilkley.

It was catalogued as 19th century, with a replaced plate, later back batons, small chips and wear, age cracks and the gilt painted surface was thick and not original.

Stuttgart auction house Nagel (33% buyer’s premium) held its summer sale of Asian art in Salzburg having acquired an impressive array of quality pieces from European and other collections.

The Horlicks collection of Robert ‘Mouseman’ Thompson furniture will be sold at auction in Stansted Mountfitchet this autumn.

Catalogued as Anglo-Indian but probably Indo-Portuguese, this ivory, tortoiseshell and white metal casket, below, was a box of delight for the vendor.

The post-war industrial modernist designs of Jean Prouvé and Charlotte Perriand remain firm sellers. Pieces from their best-documented commissions, like the furnishings created in the 1950s for the student residences of the Cité Universitaire in Paris, are particularly strong.

In the immediate post-war era the work of the French designer-decorator Jean Royère (1902-81) took a turn to embrace a more organic or ‘biomorphic’ style.

Most high-flying ‘design’ is made in multiples. These can be limited editions in short runs but, as some of the most iconic pieces have been produced in their millions, their commercial value is typically vested in early examples or prototypes.

This ivory-inlaid fall-fronted cabinet is one of the highlights in a sale of Islamic and Indian art at Drouot by Ader on June 29.

A major test of the market for the best of British furniture will take place in London this summer when Christie’s stages a sale dedicated to Thomas Chippendale.

Once-fashionable drum tables took a big hit during the furniture slump and while the best can do well, others can be picked up cheaply.

The best of the furniture from the contents of Faringdon House went to a Christie’s (25/20/12.5% buyer’s premium) Interiors sale, but perhaps the more interesting items from the 18th century Oxfordshire manor were handled by Wiltshire saleroom Kidson-Trigg (20% buyer’s premium).

Throughout the furniture depression, late Victorian and Edwardian chairs and sofas produced by the London firm of upholsterers Howard & Sons maintained their prices.

The tercentenary of Chippendale’s birth is the catalyst for the 'Chippendale 300' initiative – a programme of non-selling exhibitions and events held across a range of historic houses, museums and craft organisations.

Chippendale’s move to a modest Kensington terrace house in 1776 probably marked his partial retirement from business at the age of 58. He would remarry the following year but died in 1779 leaving under £29 (not much more than the cost of one of the Dundas giltwood armchairs which sold at £20 each).

As a name synonymous with English furniture turns 300 years old this year, dealers are hoping the Chippendale 300 initiative can raise the profile of good English period furniture and inject some fresh pride in an historical craft.