Jean-Pierre Hagnauer - Design New York Thursday, June 9, 2016 | Phillips
  • Catalogue Essay

    The present lot was designed and produced by the Parisian designer Jean-Pierre Hagnauer. In 1945 Hagnauer began his career as an antiques dealer and interior designer. His teacher was the famed post-war French interior designer Georges Geffroy, whose influence was extensively seen within Hagnauer’s apartment, located on the rue de Seine, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Adjoined to Hagnauer’s apartment was his shop that housed no display window. Only known to the most important of collectors, Hagnauer’s surreptitious approach and sophisticated nature are reflected further in the 1979 publication, Architectural Digest: International Interiors: “Everything about him is understated, reassuring. He says little and is content to let his remarkable collection of furniture make its own statement" (pp. 76-79). Hagnauer produced distinguished interiors for his clients, from his work for Jean Cocteau, where he arranged the décor of his country house near Fountainebleau, to the interior of a houseboat for the actor Jean Marais. Hagnauer would always exhibit at the biennial Salon des Antiquaires and every May at the prestigious exhibition held in the Hôtel George V. Regarding his own thoughts on décor, Hagnauer strived to avoid anachronisms, trends and being literal, an effort he also applied to his own furniture design and practice. The present lot, a rare occasional table, is one of two known examples; the other example was owned by the American fashion designer Bill Blass (1922–2002). In his autobiography he refers to the table as one of his most memorable possessions: “It is the first thing I bought when I had enough money, and it has stayed with me, through various incarnations, through different periods, unchanged in my eye" (Cathy Horyn, ed., Bare Blass, New York, 2002, p. 15). Acquired by Blass while living in Paris, his table by Hagnauer was unattributed when sold as lot 20 by Sotheby’s, New York, in the “Bill Blass” sale, which took place on October 2003, where it sold for $66,000. The Hagnauer table with its margaritaceous tabletop and lustrous base of iridescence is an evocative work that resonated with Blass, which he took with him to his apartment at No. 1 Sutton Place.

Property from a Private Collection, London

12

Occasional table

1970s
Silver-plated brass, petrified wood.
23 1/2 x 26 x 26 in. (59.7 x 66 x 66 cm)
Number 4 from the edition. Base incised Jean P Hagnauer N° 4.

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for $50,000

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Design

New York Auction 9 June 2016