VIENNA.- For about a year now, spending time at home, (“Zuhausen”, as Jonathan Meese put it) has become a big topic. Many took advantage of the situation to remodel or spruce up their own homes. Dorotheum’s Design sale on 10 May 2021 is an opportunity to bid for rare sideboards, tables, carpets, sofas or lighting fixtures.

All of the approximately 250 lots of this online auction will be presented in an exhibition at Palais Dorotheum. The focus is on Austrian, German and Italian designs from 1900 to the present.

Contemporary design primarily offers prototypes, unique pieces, small and very small series. Among the unique pieces is an extraordinary light object by the Austrian glass artist Peter Kuchler III. The estimate for this luminaire with a diameter of 200 centimetres is 45,000 to 60,000 euros.

Further impressive lights include a rare Eiffel Tower floor lamp by Jean Royère, c. 1947, a Suora floor lamp by Carlo Mollino, also 1947, whose shade was inspired by convent nun hoods (suora being Italian for ‘nun’) (€ 34,000 - 40,000, € 12,000 - 18,000).

Another special object is the Big Spiral table, designed by Ron Arad in 1995 for the Triennale di Milano. It comes from a group of 38 tables of different sizes and shapes, which formed a large spiral when put together. Each of these tables has an edition of 38 pieces, but so far only a small number has been produced (€ 24,000 - 30,000).

A console with mirror designed by Ettore Sottsass (€ 35,000 - 55,000) takes us back to 1960s Italy, as does a rare divano tre posti “acqua e terra” by Mario Ceroli (€ 10,000 - 15,000)

Furniture from the 1920s goes back to the beginnings of design history. Marcel Breuer is regarded as the inventor of modern tubular steel furniture, represented in the auction by a rare ‘seating machine’ B 25 together with ottoman B 63, designed in 1928/1929, executed by Thonet, Frankenberg (€ 20,000 - 30,000). Early Austrian design is also present with works by Josef Frank, Alfred Soulek, Otto Prutscher, Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Adolf Loos and Oswald Haerdtl.

The large selection of carpets by renowned designers is also striking. The cheerful “Swimming Pool Carpet” from 1988, designed by David Hockney, is the perfect match for the season (€ 3,000 - 4,000).