Jean Prouvé - Design London Wednesday, April 24, 2013 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Alstom Factory, Nancy, France, 1950s
    Galerie Patrick Seguin, Paris

  • Literature

    Peter Sulzer, Jean Prouvé: Œuvre Complète / Complete Works, Volume 3: 1944-1954, Basel, 2005, p. 184, fig. 1163. 11 for a drawing
    Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Prouvé, Volume 2, Paris, 2007, pp. 404, 420-22 for period images, design drawings and detail of the model

  • Catalogue Essay

    The present lot is one of only six known extant examples of the model.

  • Artist Biography

    Jean Prouvé

    French • 1901 - 1984

    Jean Prouvé believed in design as a vehicle for improvement. His manufactory Les Ateliers Jean Prouvé, located in Nancy, France, produced furniture for schools, factories and municipal projects, both within France and in locations as far flung as the Congo. Though he designed for the masses, pieces such as his "Potence" lamps and "Standard" chairs are among the most iconic fixtures in sophisticated, high-design interiors today. Collectors connect with his utilitarian, austere designs that strip materials down to the bare minimum without compromising on proportion or style.

    Prouvé grew up in Nancy, France, the son of Victor Prouvé, an artist and co-founder of the École de Nancy, and Marie Duhamel, a pianist. He apprenticed to master blacksmiths in Paris and opened a small wrought iron forge in Nancy. However it was sheet steel that ultimately captured Prouvé's imagination, and he ingeniously adapted it to furniture, lighting and even pre-fabricated houses, often collaborating with other design luminaries of the period, such as Robert Mallet-Stevens, Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand.

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191

Rare 'Flavigny' table, model no. 504, from the Alstom Factory, Nancy

1950s
Painted sheet steel, painted tubular steel, aluminium-covered wood.
74.7 x 183 x 82.5 cm (29 3/8 x 72 x 32 1/2 in)
Manufactured by les Ateliers Jean Prouvé,France.

Estimate
£120,000 - 180,000 

Sold for £206,500

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Design

London 25 April 2013 2pm