Hiquily’s quirky, angular creations, something like 3-D versions of Wilfredo Lam, are often part-sculpture, part-furniture, and a good example here was a coffee table 16in (40cm) tall with a circular glass top, 5ft 3in (1.6m) in diameter, supported by a beaten and welded brass reclining nude. It sold for €30,000 (£18,750), over double estimate.
Confirming Hiquily’s erotic leanings were the suggestive curves of an “anthromorphic” gilt and welded brass armchair, with faux zebra-skin velvet upholstery, that span to €25,500 (£15,900), over treble estimate.
Top price for Hiquily, though, went to a pair of Skittle tables in gilt brass, 2ft 8in (80.5cm) tall, with a slice of palmwood tree trunk, 17in (43.5cm) in diameter. These soared seven times estimate to €55,000 (£34,350).
His welded brass female acrobat Claudie, 7ft 10in (2.4m) tall on a black lacquered metal frame, more than doubled hopes on €34,000 (£21,200). So did his 1970 gilt brass abstract sculpture, apparently composed of vari-shaped boomerangs and punningly entitled Suspendue à Ton Souffle (Waiting on Your Every Breath), height 3ft 7in (1.1m), at €29,000 (£18,100). And an artist’s proof Bocquel casting of Les Bas Noirs, a seated gilt brass nude with black-patinated stockings, 6ft 5in (1.96m) tall and numbered EA 1/2, rated a top-estimate €24,500 (£15,300) even though the black patina was patchily faded.
Hiquily’s quirky creations prove winners
PARIS: Ten works by Philippe Hiquily (born 1925) surfaced in the Camard sale at Drouot on February 8, comfortably exceeding predictions to post “record prices” and enjoy what Camard called “tremendous success among French and foreign collectors and decorators.”
