Furniture

From elegant furniture by Scandinavian designers to stand-out lamps and decorative pieces… the lines, materials and simplicity that characterise interiors items from the mid-century modern period appeal to a wide range of buyers.

Sworders’ run of single-owner sales continues with a two-day auction on May 13-14 titled Paul Atkinson, The Nomadic Collector.

Chairs were in particular demand at the Dulwich biannual Mid-century event

Jean Dunand was an Art Deco period craftsman known above all for his skill in the technique of lacquer and a good example of his craftsmanship was the star turn in a sale of decorative arts held by Tajan (26/21/14% buyer’s premium).

In 1950, the Swiss artist, architect and designer Pierre Jeanneret (1896-1967) joined his cousin Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (who assumed the pseudonym Le Corbusier) to create a new capital of Punjab.

Welsh auction house Rogers Jones (26.4% buyer’s premium inc VAT) recently conducted its largest house clearance in over 30 years: the principal contents of Plas Teg in Flintshire.

Whatever interior statement one hopes to achieve, it is so often the furniture that really makes a room.

An unmistakable piece of modern furniture is the highlight of the sale on May 16 at Lempertz in Cologne.

Estimated at €1000, this 19th century Irish mahogany bureau with a link to Sir Winston Churchill sold for €9500 (£8000) at Fonsie Mealy (25% buyer’s premium) in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny.

A number of hall chairs of this idiosyncratic type from the early years of the ‘age of mahogany’ are known and have appeared on the market.

What a difference three years and an estimate can make.

The second part of the Beedham Collection – a fine array of early oak furniture and associated works of art from the Derbyshire dealing family – came for sale at Bishop & Miller (25% buyer’s premium) in Glandford, Norfolk, on March 19.

The contents of the Bishop’s House in Newry, standing on the Clanrye river in counties Down and Armagh, were sold by Victor Mee (20% buyer’s premium) earlier this year.

A recent sale at Burstow & Hewitt (20% buyer’s premium) in Battle, East Sussex was led by six Danish rosewood dining chairs designed by Niels Otto Moller for JL Moller.

The few surviving pieces of furniture designed by Archibald Knox were mainly produced at the Sunnyside Workshops in Douglas, founded by Knox with his friend and patron Wilson James Ashburner in 1899.

Collection amassed by Christie’s veteran Hugo Morley-Fletcher includes ‘special group’ of porcelain

As with Pierre Jeanneret and his vision for Chandigarh in India, Oscar Niemeyer (1907-2012) is famous for his involvement in the city of Brasilia as chief architect.

The Art Deco design movement found a unique expression in Cotswolds School furniture - one that sought to blend clean lines with traditional English materials and craftsmanship.