A unique glass mosaic Moth, made for one of London’s busiest stations in the 1980s, has sold for £12,600 (including buyer’s premium) as part of Lyon & Turnbull’s major Modern Made auction in London on Friday 31 October.
Moth – From the Tottenham Court Road Station Mosaic was created in 1983 by Scottish artist Sir Eduardo Paolozzi RA as part of his vast mural for the busy underground station in central London.
Paolozzi’s celebrated mural draws on major cultural, technological and musical themes of his career, capturing two-dimensional collaged forms in the colourful shimmer of glass mosaic.
As Tottenham Court Road station often serves as a meeting point for those heading towards Soho and the West End, Paolozzi’s Moth depicts a restless, nocturnal creature – fittingly symbolic of the nightlife that surrounds the area. For millions of travellers, one of Paolozzi’s Moths is among the last artworks they see before leaving the station.
The large mosaic work, made of glass tiles mounted on plywood, was originally estimated to sell for £5,000 to £7,000 at Lyon & Turnbull’s sale at the Mall Galleries in London.
This particular Moth was never installed at Tottenham Court Road Station because it simply did not fit the intended space, despite efforts by both Paolozzi and London Underground architect Duncan Lamb to make it work within the elevated site.
It was subsequently gifted to David Lamb, who worked for the London Transport Architects Department between 1974 and 1994, upon his retirement. The work was consigned to the auction by his family, with their blessing.
Born in Leith in 1924 to Italian parents, Paolozzi was already an internationally acclaimed artist when London Regional Transport invited him to design the Tottenham Court Road mural in 1979. A member of the project team had been inspired by his earlier mosaic work in West Berlin.
The Tottenham Court Road mural, completed in 1986, was saved for posterity in 2015 after being threatened with demolition during the £400m Crossrail redevelopment of the site for the Elizabeth Line.
Duncan Lamb, who continued to work as a consultant for London Transport after the closure of its architectural department in the late 1990s, recalled his close collaboration with the artist:
“Eduardo and I visited the glass works in Udine, in north-eastern Italy, to discuss the project. I returned a number of times to check on progress. When the first stage of the work – the mosaics for the Central Line – arrived, the length was fine, but they were about a metre too high, so they had to be adapted on site.
Work could only be carried out from midnight until about 4am, and Eduardo didn’t want to go out at night to amend them, so he left it to me to make it all fit. I would do a normal day’s work as an architect, wander around the city until midnight, and then go underground to cut and paste the mosaic into place, catching the first train home at dawn.
I’ve always called the piece a butterfly or moth because of its bright colouring. But it was, in fact, a moth – representing the nightlife of Soho and the environs of Tottenham Court Road.”
Simon Hucker, Senior Specialist in Modern & Contemporary Art at Lyon & Turnbull, who handled the sale, said:
“Sir Eduardo Paolozzi and Duncan Lamb worked together brilliantly. They visited the mosaic factory in Udine several times, and Paolozzi trusted Duncan to make on-site decisions to ensure the pieces fit perfectly.
There has been nothing else like this for sale at auction – it’s not a study or a replica, but a genuine part of the work itself. When you touch it, it’s like touching the wall of the Tube station. For a piece of public art, it’s surprisingly delicate and jewel-like.
Paolozzi was a major international artist who worked across many media, and his mosaics are extremely rare to encounter on the open market. This was truly a unique sale.”
