$9 Million in Sales and Records Broken at Phillips Design Auction
On a gray Thursday afternoon, the auction floor of Phillips London was red hot. The house's Important Design auction in London yesterday—which offered works ranging from British ceramics to American craft furniture—realized auction records for six talents, both old favorites and stars-on-the-rise. The sale totaled $9,758,109, with a whopping 54 percent of works exceeding their high estimates and 91 percent sold through.
New records emerged for Ettore Sottsass and Wendell Castle at $430,221 and $313,268, respectively. Domenico Raimondo—Phillips' head of design for Europe—explains that both the Castle and Sottsass works were exceptional and appeared at auction at an optimal time for both late artists.
A hanging mirror sculpture by Sottsass became the new auction record for the artist. Though freshly spotlit in an exhibition at the Met Breuer last fall, the design community's obsession with Sottsass' Memphis works is nothing new. Raimondo credits the record prices to the quality of Phillips' pieces and a growing mainstream excitement about his work."Sottsass was not a commercial success in his lifetime," Raimondo says. "Now, of course, Sottsass is the holy grail of design. He was a genius, he did devise a language."
The auction house dedicated a 4-piece portion of the sale to "Important works by Ettore Sottsass"—museum-quality pieces—in addition to 12 other Sottsass designs. One of these important works, the mirror-and-wood sculpture—yellow-and-red painted planks of pine conjoined with a square mirror by hemp rope—is completely unique and was once part of the collection of gallerist Lina Matteucci. Sottsass presented the piece in 1959 at the Artform gallery in Milan with plans to create similar models, though they were never realized.
"With Sottsass, the primary form is always the triangle, the circle, and the rectangle. And color was another one of his most important materials, so to speak," Raimondo adds. "In that respect, these pieces were very important because each allowed him to express his language and what was interesting to him."
American craft icon Wendell Castle's unique three-seater sofa broke his existing auction record by nearly $100,000. The stack-laminated walnut and leather piece showcases Castle's signature curved forms, mastery of wood, and otherworldly craft quality. Raimondo explains that this result indicates the strength of the American craft market. "This piece came onto the market from a private collector for the first time," Raimondo says. "American craft is a very strong market, and is growing accross regions—it's not just American collectors." And as with many artists, Castle's work is expected to rise in value following his passing earlier this year.
Other new records were set for Judy Kensley McKie (another American craft piece), Michele Oka Doner, Deborah Thomas, and Paolo Buffa.
One of the most well-known names in high design—Gio Ponti—also had a notable day at Phillips. A unique red marble, brass, and walnut table by the Italian designer sold for $363,390—the second-highest price ever realized for a Ponti piece, $396,800. Interestingly, the record holding piece is a matching low table from the same collection rendered in blue marble, which sold in 2015. Both custom tables come from the legendary collection of the Contini Bonacossi family, who commissioned them in 1927. "It proves the almost endless design lexicon of Ponti," Raimondo says. "He used these feet in this table and never used them again."
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