Name: Auction: LIBERTY AND CO., LONDON ARTS & CRAFTS OAK SECRETAIRE, CIRCA 1900
Brand: Lyon & Turnbull
Price: 600 GBP
Availability: OutOfStock

Day One: 02 November 2020 | From 10:00

Day Two: 03 November 2020 | From 10:00

Sale number: 616&nbsp;An important work by Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) made a sensational £250,000* during our November 2020 Decorative Arts: Design since 1860 live online auction. The bedside cabinet, the pair to another in the collection of the Victoria &amp; Albert Museum, proved the star lot in our highly anticipated Decorative Arts auction held over two days on November 2-3, 2020.Last sold at auction in 1988, the piece was made c.1916 for the industrialist Wenman Joseph Bassett Lowke (1877-1953) whose house 78 Derngate, Northampton was remodelled and furnished in the modern taste.In the wake of his success in Glasgow, Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald had moved to Suffolk in 1914 with Bassett Lowke, founder of the tinplate toy maker of the same name, becoming his main client. At 78 Derngate, Mackintosh’s style evolved to focus on broad planes of polished and waxed timber enhanced by abalone inlay. His production methods changed too. Unable to supervise the manufacture of these pieces, Mackintosh provided drawings that were worked up by German craftspeople working on the Isle of Man.With a guide of £10,000-15,000, the cabinet attracted bidders from around the world, eventually selling to a private British collector.Our auction boasted important works by many luminaries of Victorian and early 20th century design, attracting some 1600 international bidders (1400 of them bidding online across four bidding platforms) who together spent £985,000*. The sale total was double pre-sale expectations with some 82% of lots finding new buyers.Another masterwork of Scottish Art Nouveau was Francis Macdonald McNair’s design for the cover of Das Eigenkleid Der Frau (Women’s Own Dress) selling for a remarkable £125,000*. With its experimental female forms and decorative linear patterns, this original pencil on brown tracing paper design from 1903 epitomises the Glasgow School avant-garde and forms a bold feminist statement. The book itself, authored by Anna Muthesius, is considered a seminal text in the development of early 20th-century women’s fashion. Muthesius and her husband Hermann, the architectural writer, became close friends with ‘The Glasgow Four’ after several trips to the city and the Willow Tearooms.A rare extra-size ‘Tudric’ pewter and abalone clock design c.1900 by Archibald Knox (1864-1933) sold for £26,000*. Knox’s designs for Liberty &amp; Co are very well documented. However, this 10in (25cm) model - a minimalist form thought to have been inspired by the Celtic standing stones of Knox’s native Isle of Man – is usually seen in a much smaller size of just over 6in (16cm) high. Knox is known to have produced a small number of extra-sized clocks during his Liberty period and it may be that this rare example was produced as a special commission.With our established record selling the best work of Christopher Dresser (1834-1904), a 5in (13.5cm) high spherical form electroplated teapot with an angular ebony handle commanded £12,500*. This is one of around 80 designs by Dresser that appear in the Dixon ‘Calculation Books’ from 1879-83 – it appears alongside the inscription ‘1 gill teapot 2278/ Designed by Dr Dresser’ - but, due to the expense of manufacture and the sometimes daring forms, not all made it into full production. In addition to maker's marks and Dresser’s facsimile signature is a lozenge registration mark for 1880.

Diego

John Mackie | Design Specialist - Lyon & Turnbull Auctions

Buy, sell & consign decorative arts at auction in Edinburgh, London, Glasgow and online

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Design Since 1860

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Lyon & Turnbull | Online Auction Specialists  

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the panelled fall opening to reveal a fitted interior and flanked by original brass candle sconces, single drawer and shelved base, supports pierced with foliate forms

LIBERTY AND CO., LONDON

ARTS & CRAFTS OAK SECRETAIRE, CIRCA 1900

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