Heritage Auction’s Design Auction Highlights

A rare lamp by French designers Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti highlights an important California collection in Heritage Auctions’ Design Auction April 20 in Dallas, Texas. The 245-lot sale also includes, among its highlights, an extensive collection of studio glass by elite artists from the movement, as well as a selection of furniture, accessories, windows, and drawings by the legendary Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Elizabeth Garouste and Mattia Bonetti Dawson Floor Lamp, 1990 with an estimated auction price of $20,000-30,000, is made of gilt iron and stands 97.5 inches tall. Created by the duo known for their imaginative decorative art and furniture designs, the lamp is one of five lots in the sale by the artists and an example of the works from the pair who offered a unique blend of classical materials, including wrought iron, and modern shapes, and designs.

Dale Chihuly’s Cobalt Blue Grande Venetian with Carmine Rings and Turquoise Leaves, 1989 is one of 10 lots in the auction by the American glass sculptor whose works are heralded for their artistic value within the field of blown glass. Standing 32 inches tall, it is signed and dated, and is offered together with an original work on paper: Dale Chihuly, Grande Venetian Drawing, 2001, acrylic on paper, 43 x 30 inches – a Maurine Littleton Gallery exhibition pamphlet and Create Glass Art Center of America pamphlet and postcard, each featuring photographs of the artist with this example.

“This auction includes many interesting groups of works, from contemporary glass to wood turnings by notable artists; from elegant contemporary French design to rare and important works by our greatest architect,” Heritage Auctions Design Director Brent Lewis said. 

A wall light from the Avery Coonley House, Riverside, Illinois, circa 1908 is among a selection of eight lots in the sale by Frank Lloyd Wright, a friend of the consignor’s family, which has owned it for more than 80 years. “Many works, such as the works related to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Coonley house, share similar histories yet are consigned by different owners. It is exciting to bring them together in one auction.”

Wright often visited the family’s Wisconsin home, which was near Taliesin, and Wright’s studio and home near the town of Spring Green. In addition to the wall light, the lots from the revered American architect include, but are not limited to: a pair of windows, circa 1910, which the family has kept since receiving them from Wright in the 1930s, four Taliesin Barrel Armchairs, designed 1937, Cassina, Wright’s Specification Folder and Drawings for the Mr. and Mrs. Randall Fawcett Ranch House, Mercer County, California, 1956 and Drawings and Renderings for Mr. and Mrs. Randall Fawcett Ranch House, Mercer County, California (twenty-six works), 1956. 

Other top lots include Dale Chihuly, Eight-Piece Cobalt Seaform Group with Red Lip Wrap, 1994; Georges Jouve, Femme à Nichons Vase, circa 1946; Karl Benjamin, Untitled, 1951; Daniel Oern Dailey, Balustrade Man Lamp, 1990; and Ferrucio Polacco’s sculpture Reclining Figure, circa 1960.