Creative Salvage was the collective name for the ad-hoc movement started by designers Tom Dixon, Mark Brazier Jones, Nick Jones and André Dubreuil in 1985. Creative Salvage emphasized a “punk” approach to interior and industrial design, an ethos and aesthetic achieved by welding recycled scrap metal to create sculptural artifact-like objects, born out of the detritus of the urban landscape. Creative Salvage held just three exhibitions, and the creations of the designers, intentionally meant to appear unskilled and underground, were showcased in London’s club and party scene of the 1980s.

The present lot is from the collection of chocolatier Chantal Coady, Tom Dixon’s first patron. Coady became acquainted with Dixon through Creative Salvage and was attracted to his work’s “raw energy and anarchic quality.” Shortly thereafter she commissioned Dixon to outfit the interior of her confectionery Rococo Chocolates in London, transforming it from a candy shop to a Salon de Thé and gallery space to showcase the work of the designers from Creative Salvage. Despite being furnished in work that Coady described as “neither safe nor comfortable to sit on” the Salon drew crowds and attention, marking it a success.