Parisian industrial designer Martin Szekely is widely known for his designs for Hermès, Dom Perignon, and Perrier. The diversity of his capabilities is evident in his portfolio, with projects ranging from an electric pylon for the French utility company EDF to a leather satchel for Belgian clothier Delvaux. In the early years of the twenty-first century, he began to produce furniture and objects in limited editions; the ‘Des Étagères’ series is among the earliest.

The present unique lot was designed in 2008 as part of ‘Des Étagères’. The concept of a borderline informs the work both physically and formally. The design was conceived as an engineering challenge that would test the limits of minimal use of material. In Ne plus dessiner, the publication related to Szekely’s 2012 exhibition at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the rationale and success of the construction is explained: ‘Keeping a structure upright means thinking about bracing-the use of triangulation to cancel out vertical and horizontal forces. ‘Des Étagères’ uses a simple small triangle, its base placed along the vertical strut and its summit lying along the underside of the shelf. The combined force of all the small triangular pieces stabilises the whole structure whatever is placed on it’. Theoretical and engineering exercises aside, the design of these shelves is fully informed by their function: the uprights can be used as bookends and the high shelves allow for ease of use. Szekely says, "The shelves have their own rules, dictated by the functional specificity of the way it is put together rather than by subjective aesthetic decisions."