Ruhlmann sale survives some inconstancy in the bedroom...

This had a roughly similar buy-in rate of 43 per cent (74 lots sold
from 139). The principal interest was engendered by bedroom furniture in oak and burr amboyna, with ivory mounts and decoration, designed by Ruhlmann for Monsieur & Madame Simon in 1922 and consigned by their descendants.

Preparatory drawings and correspondence concerning the commission are kept in the Musée des Années Trente in suburban Boulogne-Billancourt, potentially adding to the lots’ appeal.

Nevertheless, the saleroom response was inconsistent. A single-doored, drum-shaped commode tambour with ivory sabots scored a triple-estimate €160,000 (£11,000) but a two-doored cabinet with ten centre drawers sold short of hopes at €110,000 (£24,440) and a bed incorporating side units sold on a low-estimate €40,000 (£2750).

The five Ruhlmann lots offered brought a hammer total of €490,000 (£338,000) with a circular Colonettes coffee table fetching a top-estimate €100,000 (£6900), and a pair of easy chairs with plum-red velvet upholstery hitting a triple-estimate €80,000 (£5500).

ArtCurial also registered keen interest in Jean-Michel Frank’s cross-legged oak film director’s chair, with pale brown leather Hermes upholstery, consigned by Frank’s descendants. It sold at a triple-estimate €60,000 (£4140).

A 4ft 3in (1.3m) Frank floor lamp with a cylindrical glass shaft on a circular, silvered metal base, soared six times over hopes to €70,000 (£4830).

The sale also included a handful of furnishings designed by André Arbus and Raymond Subes for the head office of the French Steelworkers’ Union in Paris in 1953.

These totalled €124,000 (£8550), much as expected, led by two identical, rectangular oak console tables which sold within estimates at €40,000 (£27,500) and €35,000 (£24,100).

At other sales, a set of four Palm-Tree stucco floor lamps, 6ft 2in (1.88m) tall, with round bases piled with imitation rocks, unsigned but attributed to Serge Roche (1898-1988), doubled hopes to take €20,000 (£1380) at Thierry de Maigret (17.94% buyers’ premium) at Drouot on June 25 while at Aguttes (20.33% buyers’ premium) in suburban Neuilly on July 1 a pair of Dupré-Lafon oak coffee tables with parchment covering to their tops and single, chunky rectangular legs, made a treble-estimate €105,000 (£72,400).