LONDON.- Important and unique sculptures in metal by Sido and François Thévenin are among the star lots at
Bonhams Design Sale in London on Tuesday 4 October. They include Musique au Paradis, a monumental wall-mounted sculpture from 1974 estimated at £30,000-50,000.
Sido and François Thévenin met in 1952 at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. They married in 1955, and settled on the French Riviera where in 1961, they worked with the artist Jean Cocteau on the sundial 'Les Lézards' for the village Coaraze in the Alpes-Maritimes above Nice. Over subsequent years the couple collaborated with the architect Jacques Couëlle (and later his son Savin) creating door furniture and lighting among other fixtures and fittings for their wealthy clients. Friends with Picasso, Yves Tanguy and Brassaï, François and Sido together created a vast collection of work and exhibited at prestigious locations, including Drouant, Paris, in 1972, and Cartier in 1980. Their work, which extends from furniture to sculpture, painting, drawing and etchings, was continually inventive and conveyed an organic, unexpected, and enchanting world for their viewers.
Other unique pieces by Sido and François Thévenin in the sale include:
• Ribambelle, 1971. Estimate: £10,000-15,000.
• Notre-Dame des sans-culottes, 1979. Estimate: £8,000-12,000.
Other highlights of the sale, which consists of 131 lots, include:
• Two important pieces by the Austrian-born British ceramicist Hans Coper. Tall bottle vase with disc circa 1968 is estimated at £80,000-100,000 and Bottle vase with disc circa 1957 at £40,000-60,000.
• A rare Allegro armchair designed by Sir Basil Spence, the architect of Coventry Cathedral, in 1949 and produced in the 1950s. Estimate: £2,000-3,000.
• Untitled pot, 1983 by Magdalene Odundo. Estimate: £20,000-30,000.
• Table with Bird's Legs by Méret Oppenheim, designed 1939, produced 1983. Estimate: £15,000-20,000.
• Two Advocate and Press armchairs, model no. LC/PJ-SI-41-A, designed for the High Court, Chandigarh by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. Estimate: £20,000-30,000.
