Important Design

Important Design

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 441. Refectory Table.

Property from the Pinnacle Art Collection

Jean Prouvé

Refectory Table

Auction Closed

June 9, 06:24 PM GMT

Estimate

350,000 - 550,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Pinnacle Art Collection

Jean Prouvé

Refectory Table


circa 1939

produced by Ateliers Jean Prouvé, Nancy, France

galvanized steel, fibrated Granipoli concrete

28⅞ x 63¼ x 28 in. (73.3 x 160.6 x 71.1 cm)

DeLorenzo 1950 Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1993

Jean Prouvé, exh. cat., Galeries Jousse Seguin and Enrico Navarra, Paris, 1998, pp. 80-81
Jean Prouvé: Constructeur, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nancy, 2001, p. 71
Catherine Dumont d'Ayot and Bruno Reichlin, eds., Jean Prouvé: The Poetics of the Technical Object, exh. cat., Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein 2007, p. 312
Galerie Patrick Seguin and Sonnabend Gallery, ed., Jean Prouvé, Vol. I, Paris, 2007, pp. 414-417
Galerie Patrick Seguin and Sonnabend Gallery, ed., Jean Prouvé, Vol. II, Paris, 2007, pp. 111, 120-121, 140-141, 154 and 163
Peter Sulzer, Jean Prouvé, Complete Works Volume 2: 1934-1944, Basel, 2000, p. 241 (for a drawing of the model)
A Passion for Jean Prouvé, From Furniture to Architecture, The Laurence and Patrick Seguin Collection, exh. cat., Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli, Torino, 2013, pp. 42 and 142-145
An outstanding and exceedingly rare design by Jean Prouvé, the present table produced circa 1939 is one of only thirty canteen tables custom made for the seaside vacation camp at Saint-Brevin l’Océan. The present table exhibits four tapered and bent steel legs connected by a welded tube frame and bent steel cross pieces at each end, one of which is fitted with tubular napkin holders. For this specific design, Prouvé fitted the tabletop with Granipoli-fibrated cement and galvanized the metal surfaces to protect the piece from the local climatic conditions, and humidity specifically. A superb example of Prouvé’s interplay of form and function, the model further stands out by its scarcity on the secondary market with only seventeen examples remaining.