Serge Mouille - Design Masters New York Tuesday, December 11, 2012 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Private collection, New York

  • Literature

    Anthony DeLorenzo, Alan and Christine Counord, Jean Prouvé/Serge Mouille: Two Master Metalworkers, New York, 1985, pp. 148–49
    Pierre Émile Pralus, Serge Mouille,A French Classic, Saint Cyr au Mont d’Or, 2006, pp. 228–29, 234–35

  • Catalogue Essay

    Serge Mouille first presented his vrillée (spiral) table at the 1962 Salon des arts ménagers, an annual Paris exhibition which showcased innovations in domestic living. As stated by Pierre Émile Pralus, approximately 30 vrillée tables were made by Mouille’s atelier. Cut from flat sheet steel, the table base was gripped in a vice and turned with a lever by four men. The lines described by the twelve radiating arms approximate those of logarithmic spirals: the distance of the arms from the central hub increase in geometric progression. A form often found in nature—nautilus shells,
    galaxies, broccoli—the growth spiral, as it’s also known, was apt inspiration for a designer whose iconic black-painted floor lamps of the previous decade seemed to spring from the earth.

PROPERTY FROM A PROMINENT NEW YORK COLLECTION

9

'Vrillée' table

circa 1962
Cut sheet steel, chrome-plated metal, glass.
17 1/8 x 51 3/4 x 29 in (43.5 x 131.4 x 73.7 cm)
Manufactured by Atelier Serge Mouille, France. From the production of approximately 30.

Estimate
$80,000 - 120,000 

Design Masters

11 December 2012
New York