LOS ANGELES – Mid-century works by the modernist architects and interior designers Jacques Adnet (1900-1984) and Jacques Quinet (1918-1992) were in strong demand at Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA). A trio of pieces in their signature leather-clad style brought five-figure sums on February 28. Complete results are available at LiveAuctioneers.
While Adnet began his career in the heyday of Art Deco Paris, it is increasingly his post-war work — a modern take on the traditional French country house interior — that the market admires most. Particularly coveted are the range of elegant furniture designs with tubular metal frames clad in saddle-stitched leather, made between the late 1940s and late 1950s. Aimed at the very highest-end clients (Adnet’s high-profile interiors projects in this period include the renovation of French President Vincent Auriol’s private apartments at the Palais de l’Elysée), they were made in association with the luxury leather goods house Hermès.
Dated circa 1955 was a 7ft 4in (2.24m)-wide sideboard cabinet of three drawers and two doors in black leather over a steel and oak frame. Mounted in lacquered brass (a gallery, handles, and fittings to the ‘bamboo’ pillars), it was described as being ‘in good vintage condition’, with the leather refinished. Estimated at $10,000-$15,000, it took $35,000 ($45,850 with buyer’s premium) as 86 bidders ‘watched’ on LiveAuctioneers.
It was unsigned, but a similar six-shelf library book stand and ladder attributed to Jacques Adnet and dated circa 1960 hammered for $28,000 ($36,680 with buyer’s premium) against the same estimate.
Working at the same time for a similar clientele, Jacques Quinet was another proponent of functional design that married the ‘new’ of fabricated tubular steel and the warmth of organic materials such as tropical hardwood, leather, rattan, and lacquer. He also used leatherette, the then-recently available artificial fabric that was both cheaper and required less maintenance.
His series of desks that were installed in the Mobilier National and the residence of General Eisenhower at Marne-la-Coquette are prized by decorators and collectors. The February 28 LAMA sale had a circa-1950 President desk in rouge leather, brass, and oak veneer, offered in ‘very good vintage condition’, which hammered for $30,000 ($39,300 with buyer’s premium) against $10,000-$15,000.
Among the most popular American-designed pieces in the sale was a set of six enameled steel Model 132U chairs by Donald Knorr. This was the design for which Knorr shared first prize at the influential ‘Low Cost furniture Design’ competition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1948. However, it was only made by Treitel Gratz of New York for two years. The six chairs hammered well above estimate at $22,000 ($28,820 with buyer’s premium).
The top price of the sale was shared by an Alexander Calder (1898-1976) tapestry — one of two in the lineup from the series made to raise money for victims of the earthquake that afflicted Nicaragua and Guatemala in December 1972. Local workers, using traditional techniques and jute rather than wool, were paid four times their usual rate to complete the project. There are 14 different designs, with each made in an edition of 100. A Floating Circles tapestry, number 38 from the edition of 100, was the one that tied for top-lot honors, hammering at $35,000 ($45,850 with buyer’s premium), while a second Calder tapestry in the Moon design, 73 from the edition of 100, brought $22,000 ($28,820 with buyer’s premium) from a LiveAuctioneers bidder.
In November 2023, the Paris auction house Piasa offered a complete set of all 14 Calder weavings that had been owned by Kitty Meyer, the New York socialite who had first approached Calder with the earthquake fundraising idea. All numbered 53 of 100, they brought hammer prices between €30,000-€60,000 ($32,675-$65,350), with Moon selling at €32,000 ($34,850) and Floating Circle at €50,000 ($54,460).
