Tiffany & Co. and Fondation César Smash Conventions to Elegant Effect

O n view at Sotheby’s Design Week auctions in New York is a unique collaboration between Tiffany & Co. and Fondation César. This collaboration between the artist’s foundation and the world-famous luxury house pays homage to a true “creative revolutionary” says Lauren Santo Domingo, Artistic Director of Tiffany Home. At Sotheby’s, the collection will be exhibited alongside the season’s important Design sales, including the highly anticipated Important Design auction and three sales dedicated to Tiffany objects, including Dreaming in Glass: Masterworks by Tiffany Studios, which will offer property from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The French sculptor César knew all about breaking expectations. A leading figure in the Nouveau Realisme movement of the mid-20th century and the man who designed the French equivalent of the Oscar, César is celebrated for his “Compressions” – often crushed car parts – and “Expansions” (organic free-forms of solidified polyurethane). He was the modern master of rearrangement.

In 1973 he took that talent for reconfiguration into the dining room with the Assiette Brisee, a mischievous “broken plate” design that mimicked smashed porcelain on unbroken, pristine crockery. Today, César’s iconic motif returns – revitalized once again – in the Tiffany & Co. x Fondation César homeware collection, an exclusive selection of holiday tableware that will be showcased at Sotheby’s New York this December.

The Tiffany & Co. x Fondation César collection includes dessert plates and espresso cups with saucers to compliment any tea service. Tiffany & Co. reintroduces three archival designs crafted by porcelain atelier Le Tallec during the 1970s in new interpretations of the “broken plate” style conceived by César in 1973. These new trompe-l’œil plates, full of wit, irony and poetry, feature a solid color that accentuates the mosaic of cracked china. The bottom layer is offered in Tiffany Blue^® or a hue evoking that of a colored gemstone.

“César was fascinated with the idea of repurposing and recontextualizing. He took the idea of a broken plate and applied a new vision,” says Stephanie Busuttil-Janssen, Founder and President of the César Foundation. “His kitchen walls and ceiling were covered with white and blue broken plates, classic ceramics that he found in the market. It was beautiful. Even his garden featured broken plates – it’s something that is very César.”

At Sotheby’s, the plates will be accompanied by a range of gold and enamel teaspoons and plume-decorated linens, along with bronze chargers, candlesticks and salt and pepper bowls all inspired by César’s “Expansions.” The tableware will be presented on a bronze and glass “Table Expansion” by Cesar from 1977 and feature alongside two of the artist’s wall pieces: a “Compression” work from 1994, and a bronze-and-gold “Expansion” lamp designed in 1970 from the collector and gallerist Adam Lindemann.

This collaboration draws on Tiffany’s proud tradition of working with uplifting and avant-garde artists, notes Lauren Santo Domingo. “The collection taps into César’s radical creativity to express the notion of breaking conventions of modern living. At their core, these collections celebrate Tiffany’s heritage and our long-standing connection to the art world.”

Lauren will personally set the table in Sotheby’s galleries at the opening of the holiday season and has curated her highlights from the exceptional Tiffany works included in Design auctions.

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