NEW YORK, NY.- Sotheby’s annual December auctions of Important Design and Tiffany: Dreaming in Glass concluded last week in New York with an outstanding $17.1 million total, surpassing an overall high estimate of $16.2 million and with 81.4% of lots sold.

A number of the lots offered were a part of Alchemy: Art x Design, an exhibition curated by Delphine and Reed Krakoff combining art, design and decorative objects from a range of periods and styles.

Important Design
Auction Total $9.4 Million
Offering an exceptional range of iconic American and European Prewar and Postwar Design, the Important Design sale was led by Alberto Giacometti’s "Grande Feuille, Version Fine" Floor Lamp, sold for $442,000 (estimate $200/300,000). Two monumental Banquettes by Claude Lalanne each brought $394,000 (estimates $250/350,000 each). Both pieces had remained in the same collection since being acquired directly from the artist in 2003. Strong competition for American design also drove results, including Donald Deskey’s Table Lamp circa 1927 that a set a new auction record for the designer at $274,000 (estimate $150/250,000), as well as a rare Coal Hod (or coal box) by Charles Rohlfs from 1901 that brought $225,000 – more than doubling its high estimate.

TIFFANY: DREAMING IN GLASS
Auction Total $7.7 Million
The December sale offered a curated selection of Tiffany’s celebrated leaded glass lighting and favrile glass. Heated competition for a magnificent “Dragonfly” Lamp from the esteemed collection of Andrew Carnegie drove the piece to achieve $2.1 million – multiples of its $350,000 high estimate, and a new auction record for the dragonfly model. Other lamps from top private collections included an extraordinary “Wisteria” Lamp from the collection of Jules and Gladys Reiner, which brought $790,000 (estimate $700/900,000), as well as a rare “Pebble” Lamp from the Warshawsky Collection that fetched an impressive $760,000 above a high estimate of $300,000.