PARIS.- Historic Italian Design was in the spotlight at PIASA’s sale Italian Design/ Homage to Lorenzo Burchiellaro at the Espace Rive Gauche on April 15, which brought a total of €1,999,000.

‘Our sale of Italian Design confirmed market interest in such established names as Gio Ponti, Gino Sarfati and BBPR’ commented Cédric Morisset, head of the 20th Century Design Department, after the sale. ‘There was also continued interest in rediscovered artists like Lorenzo Burchiellaro and Guido Gambone.’

Italian Glass was powerfully represented via a selection of works from the Fontana Arte workshops and by leading artists. A Fontana dining-table with an impressively thick glass top, commissioned around 1950, stood out on €130,740 (lot 55).

The section devoted to Lorenzo Burchiellaro aroused fierce bidding, with numerous records and a string of prices well ahead of estimate. His engraved brass Sopho console table scored €35,260, a record for the artist (lot 6), while his determinedly modern mirrors from 1967 sold for €15,300 (lot 4) and €12,700 (lot 5).

Collectors’ enthusiasm for the work of Guido Gambone remains undiminished – witness the €29,000 paid for an extraordinary stoneware sculpture (lot 82).

The refined selection of works designed by BBPR for a Milan apartment in 1959, a landmark project at the height of their career, was keenly awaited. Their metal ceiling light (lot 151) claimed €30,000; two pairs imposing wood, brass and glass floor-lamps (lots 145/146) took €24,000 apiece (est. €12,000-18,000); and an adjustable wood and brass wall-light (lot 147) made €10,200.

There were equally impressive results for works by Gio Ponti: €96,000 for a walnut burr desk (lot 130); €38,900 for the commode designed for the mythical Parco dei Principe hotel in Rome (lot 136); and €25,300 for a luminous shelving unit (lot 141,
est. €5,000-7,000).