Jean Royère - Design London Thursday, November 12, 2020 | Phillips
  • Provenance

    Galerie du Passage, Paris
    Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1992

  • Literature

    C. Grange-Bary, 'Un Dialogue Inspiré', Maison & Jardin, 30 September 1994, illustrated pp. 52, 54
    Jean Royère, décorateur à Paris, exh. cat., Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1999, p. 156 for another version of the model
    Pierre-Emmanuel Martin-Vivier, Jean Royère, Paris, 2002, pp. 55, 64 for another version of the model
    Galerie Jacques Lacoste and Galerie Patrick Seguin, Jean Royère, Volume 1, Paris, 2012, p. 260 for another version of the model

  • Catalogue Essay

    The present table comprised part of the design by celebrated French interior designer Jacques Grange for an apartment for art collectors overlooking the Luxembourg gardens. The Parisian apartment featured a lightness of forms and simplicity of line, bringing together Grange’s personal vision and many of the great French designers of the twentieth century. The present table was used as a desk alongside a ‘Persane’ floor lamp also designed by Jean Royère, a black opaline glass table lamp by Eugène Printz and side chair by Jean-Michel Frank.

    Period photograph: Dining room illustrating another version of the model, circa 1947. Courtesy of Jean Royère Archives, Galeries Jacques Lacoste & Patrick Seguin.

  • Artist Biography

    Jean Royère

    French • 1902 - 1981

    Jean Royère took on the mantle of the great artistes décorateurs of 1940s France and ran with it into the second half of the twentieth century. Often perceived as outside of the modernist trajectory ascribed to twentieth-century design, Royère was nonetheless informed by and enormously influential to his peers. Having opened a store in Paris in 1943 before the war had ended, he was one of the first to promote a new way of life through interior decoration, and his lively approach found an international audience early on in his career.

    In addition to commissions in Europe and South America, Royère had a strong business in the Middle East where he famously designed homes for the Shah of Iran, King Farouk of Egypt and King Hussein of Jordan. The surrealist humor and artist's thoughtful restraint that he brought to his furniture designs continue to draw admiration to this day.

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Property from an Important Private Collection, Paris

40

Dining table

1933-1950
Oak-veneered wood, oak.
72 x 149 x 74 cm (28 3/8 x 58 5/8 x 29 1/8 in.)

Estimate
£20,000 - 30,000 

Sold for £25,200

Contact Specialist

Madalena Horta E Costa
Head of Sale, Associate Specialist
+44 20 7318 4019
MHortaECosta@phillips.com

 

Design

London Auction 12 November 2020