Jean Prouvé - Design Masters New York Wednesday, December 15, 2010 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Sud-Est, Marseille-Marignane, France.

  • Literature

    Peter Sulzer, Jean Prouvé: OEuvre Complète, Volume 2: 1934–1944, Basel, 2000, pp. 242–43 for similar examples; Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Prouvé, Volume 2, Paris, 2007, pp. 414–15 for similar examples

  • Catalogue Essay

    The present lot is the only known extant example of a refectory table in this configuration.

  • Artist Biography

    Jean Prouvé

    French • 1901 - 1984

    Jean Prouvé believed in design as a vehicle for improvement. His manufactory Les Ateliers Jean Prouvé, located in Nancy, France, produced furniture for schools, factories and municipal projects, both within France and in locations as far flung as the Congo. Though he designed for the masses, pieces such as his "Potence" lamps and "Standard" chairs are among the most iconic fixtures in sophisticated, high-design interiors today. Collectors connect with his utilitarian, austere designs that strip materials down to the bare minimum without compromising on proportion or style.

    Prouvé grew up in Nancy, France, the son of Victor Prouvé, an artist and co-founder of the École de Nancy, and Marie Duhamel, a pianist. He apprenticed to master blacksmiths in Paris and opened a small wrought iron forge in Nancy. However it was sheet steel that ultimately captured Prouvé's imagination, and he ingeniously adapted it to furniture, lighting and even pre-fabricated houses, often collaborating with other design luminaries of the period, such as Robert Mallet-Stevens, Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand.

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17

Very rare and important refectory table, from the Société nationale des constructions aéronautiques du Sud-Est, Marseille-Marignane, France

ca. 1939
Painted steel, painted sheet steel, granipoli fiber cement, aluminum.
29 1/2 x 33 1/2 x 37 1/2 in. (74 x 202 x 95 cm.)
Manufactured by Les Ateliers Jean Prouvé, France.

Estimate
$150,000 - 250,000 

Design Masters

15 December 2010
New York