Jacques Adnet - Design London Thursday, November 12, 2020 | Phillips

Design

London Auction 12 November 2020

  • Provenance

    Private collection, Paris
    Galerie Doria, Paris
    Private collection, Gourdon
    Christie’s, Paris, ‘Les Collections du Château de Gourdon: Chefs-d’œuvre du XXème siècle', 29 March 2011, lot 4
    Acquired from the above by the present owner

  • Literature

    René Prou, Intérieurs au Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, Paris, 1928, pl. 44
    A. Diard, ‘L’éclairage de la demeure moderne’, Les Echos des Industries d’Art, no. 38, September 1928, p. 25
    René Chavance, ‘Les appareils d'éclairage’, Mobilier et Décoration, no. 8, August 1929, p. 61
    Alain-René Hardy and Gaëlle Millet, Jacques Adnet, Paris, 2009, pp. 68-69

  • Catalogue Essay

    Sobriété, élégance, confort, luxe c'est aujourd'hui

    Following his studies at the École nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the architect and décorateur Jacques Adnet joined the Maîtrise workshop of the Galeries Lafayette in 1922. The workshop's director, the designer Maurice Dufrêne became an important collaborator and friend to Adnet, supporting his appointment as artistic director of the Compagnie des Arts Français in 1928. Founded in 1919 by Louis Süe and André Mare in the spirit of renewing the tradition of the French decorative arts, under the young Adnet's leadership, the Compagnie des Arts Français became a 'laboratoire de modernité', embracing geometric simplicity and modern materials. That year, at the 18th Salon des Artistes décorateurs, Adnet exhibited furnishings for a bedroom, which made evident this new visual language. The furniture comprised seemingly regimented forms executed using luxurious materials otherwise devoid of ornamentation. A notable element within the interior was the present model table lamp. The design featured two intersecting squares made from silver-plated tubular metal and four integrated fluorescent bulbs, supported on an ebony base. Adnet also applied this architectural structure to designs for ceiling and wall lights, in which the configurations of right angles were informed by the shape and number of the exposed linear bulbs. Adnet was among the first designers to incorporate metal and glass into the structure of his furnishings, which he also celebrated for their aesthetic value within his interiors: ‘l’intérieur doit être comme l’extérieur’ (Blaise Cendrars, extract from a poem written on the invitation for the opening of the new Compagnie des Arts Français, Paris, 1928).

Property from an Important European Collection

43

Jacques Adnet

Rare table lamp

circa 1928
Silver-plated metal, glass, ebony, Bakelite.
57 x 59 x 11.4 cm (22 1/2 x 23 1/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
Produced by La Compagnie des Arts Français, Paris, France.

Estimate
£35,000 - 55,000 

Sold for £47,880

Contact Specialist

Madalena Horta E Costa
Head of Sale, Associate Specialist
+44 20 7318 4019
MHortaECosta@phillips.com

 

Design

London Auction 12 November 2020