After the onslaught of new products at the Salone del Mobile, we thought it time to take a step back and look at the limited edition, the one off and the objects that have stood the test of time - those extraordinary pieces with equally gawk-worthy prices. For their latest sale, auctioneers Phillips de Pury have pulled together a stellar list of works by names that read like a who's who of 20th and 21st century design.
Set for the hammer are pieces by mid-century masters, such as Jean Prouvé, Charlotte Perriand and Serge Mouille, including a 1953 collaboration between Prouv&#233 and Perriand - the 'Mexique' bookcase. Originally destined for the bedrooms of lucky students at Cité Universitaire, Paris, the bookcase is expected to fetch between £80,000 and £140,000.
Other standouts include Atelier Van Lieshout's 'Fisherman's House' that's modelled on the traditional fishing huts built along the Zuiderzee inlet in the 1950s; the fractured 'Quasi' cabinet by ArandaLasch; and Maarten Baas's 'Unique "Where There's Smoke" screen for which the designer provocatively burned a piece by Charles and Ray Eames.
The works are on show at Phillips de Pury's sleek new European HQ in Howick Place. A former Royal Mail sorting office in London's Victoria, it was recently converted by Alessandro Cajrati Crivelli - the man who created Milan's Zona Tortona - into a creative quarter of galleries and design studios.