The plentiful Deco selection features a supply of Lalique glass, bronze and ivory figures, Hagenauer sculpture, Georg Jensen metalwares and a variety of French and
English furnishings including this brass Pisces panel from
the lift grille at Selfridges.
Set in an iron frame measuring 1ft 61/2in x 1ft 2in (47 x 35.5cm), the panel is one of four on offer along with Cancer, Scorpio and Libra. They were designed by C.A.
Llewellyn-Roberts in the late 1920s and formed part of a series that decorated the pairs of lifts located at each corner of the department store building. New fire regulations prompted Selfridges to remove the lifts in 1971, although a complete interior and exterior frame and doors is now preserved in the Museum of London. The quartet on offer at Sotheby’s comes with an estimate of £5000-8000.
From Selfridges to Sotheby’s thanks to a facelift for the lifts
Decorative arts from 1870s Gothic Revival to 1960s Murano glass and everything in between is on offer at Sotheby’s Olympia this month. Their sizeable gathering of over 230 lots, which goes under the hammer on February 27, takes in examples of all the major design movements of the 20th century (and the latter end of the 19th): Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, Wiener Werkstätte, Deco and Modernism.
