PARIS.- On 21 May, Christie’s will present its Design sale, always very selective, gathering nearly 110 lots around the greatest creators and designers of the 20th and 21th centuries: Diego Giacometti (1902-1985), Jean Dunand (1877-1942), Claude Lalanne (1924-2019), Jean Prouvé (1901-1984), Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999), Jean Goulden (1878-1946), Georges Jouve (1910-1964), Line Vautrin (1913-1997), Goudji (1941-) and many others. The sale should attract savvy collectors and young connoisseurs, lots ranging from 1,000 to 400,000 euros.

Flavien Gaillard, Specialist of the Design department and Head of the sale: “We are very proud to present our next sale which will be punctuated by some artists’ iconic creations from prestigious collections and historical pieces such as the latest work by Diego Giacometti. Our auction will also feature pieces from the 1950’s which come back up-to-date as well as rediscoveries never seen on the market. More affordable items will also be offered to give young connoisseurs the opportunity to start a collection.”

Diego Giacometti’s collectors will have the opportunity to acquire his very last work, a unique piece in a remarkable state with its original patina, that the artist carved for a 13-year-old boy just before his death. This story dates from 1985 when the son of Diego Giacometti's physiotherapist and friend entered the artist's studio and recited a text that he had just presented at school. It was La Tante de Frankenstein (by Allan Rune Petterson), which describes the entrance into a living room, through an open window, of a bat - bat that turns into Dracula. Diego Giacometti, fascinated by the fantastic bestiary, promised him a surprise in return. The current owner of the work recalls: "A few weeks later, Diego's bat came into my life. Before getting into an ambulance to the American hospital where he will spend his last days, Diego asked his assistant, as one can remember one last thing before leaving, to assemble one of his little bats for me on three bronze sheets.

I wasn't in the workshop at the time; but by chance Daniel Marchesseau was, and took a photograph of the work. This bronze, with its particularly poetic and moving patina, will be offered for the first time on May 21 (€60,000-80,000).

Alongside his animal bronzes, Diego Giacometti is also known for his many seats and tables, whose knotty and rustic frames often shelter a whole fauna: frogs, mice, deer, foxes, dogs and cats resting on the bars and posts of the various pieces of furniture. The department will present a Table Carcasse, one of the legs of which is animated by a bird woman, bringing together fantasy and severity of the material (€350,000-450,000).

A large Design section of some forty lots will bring together the great artists of the 20th century, such as Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé and Georges Jouve. From the latter, a major ceramist active in the 1950s, Christie’s will offer a rare asymmetrical floor lamp, executed by Asselbur in 1955, mounted on a glazed ceramic base (€30,000-50,000). Another piece on sale is a remarkable cabinet model by Jean Prouvé, whose doors are made of diamond points. Realised in less than thirty copies, this spectacular wardrobe is estimated at 50,000-70,000 euros.

Another section of the sale will be dedicated to lighting. It will present about ten luminaires created in the 1950s by French and Italian designers, such as Gino Sarfatti (1912-1985), Angelo Lelli (1911-1979), Pierre Guariche (1926-1995) or Boris Lacroix (1902-1984), each of them bringing modernity through their lines or counterweight lighting systems, such as this rare 1050/2 floor lamp, created in 1951, by Gino Sarfatti, estimated at €30,000-50,000).

In the precious objects category, the sale will offer a beautiful set of twenty gilded bronze boxes by Line Vautrin (1913-1987), coming from a private French collection. This ensemble reminds us of all the creativity and imagination of this humorous designer. Each of the bronze pieces is like a treasure. The pleasure of holding these precious boxes is associated with the mysteries of the rebuses, which only give their keys to the initiated. These proofs of love are timeless, collectors and lovers of these delicate objects should be seduced by these symbols for their beloved. The set is estimated at €60,000-80,000.

Among the pieces coming from prestigious collections, the sale will include two works created around 1925 by Jean Dunand (1877-1942), and coming from Andy Warhol's former collection, which was sold at auction in 1988. Christie's will offer a vase in lacquered copper, composed of egg shell inlays, illustrating the know-how of the coppersmith and silversmith, (€40,000-60,000). Collectors will also discover a "dog panel", made of engraved and lacquered wood that is perfectly representative of Dunand's art, for whom Andy Warhol had a deep admiration (€15,000-20,000).

The department will also offer a magnificent mask created in 1920 by Jean Lambert-Rucki (1888-1967) in collaboration with Jean Dunand. Formerly in the Karl Lagerfeld's collection and comparable to the mask from the Hélène Rochas collection sold at Christie's in Paris in 2012 for €385,000, this all carved, lacquered and painted mahogany mask seen last year in an exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou is estimated at €120,000-180,000.

Coming from a private French collection, the Design department is very pleased to present a unique piece by Jean Goulden (1878-1946), acquired directly from the artist around 1927. Exhibited in 1927 and 1928 at the Georges Petit Gallery, then in 1973 at the Luxembourg Gallery, it is a rare opportunity to acquire this plant-holder in enameled silver, which remained in the same family until today (€50,000-70,000).

The sale will also highlight a very beautiful pair of "Monkeys and Water Lilies" pedestal tables made in 2004 by Claude Lalanne (1925-2019) with a monkey supporting an openwork tray of water lily leaves, estimated at €400,000-600,000. The collectors, always numerous to bid on these poetic pieces, should be sensitive to the delicacy and finesse of these creations.

Finally, among the very attractive pieces, the sale will feature a magnificent and powerful Jaguar in patinated bronze, in large format (H: 30 cm x L.47.5 cm) by Rembrandt Bugatti (1884-1916), estimated at €400,000-600,000. Up to now, only three copies of this model, made around 1907 are known. This copy has been displayed several times all over the world in Australia, London, Paris, Paris, Rome...