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The French decorator of the 1950s never ceases to break records. Its ball seats are however only made of used fabric and padding!
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The blue Sotheby’s model in 2007.
Credits: Sotheby’s.
Paradoxically, it is in the so-called “fashion” field that it is today the least significant. You can safely wear your clothes from ten or even twenty years ago without noticing it. Today everything seems allowed in the street. There is also a strong trend towards “vintage”. A refusal of fashion, finally, in what it can have ephemeral.
With the arts, even decorative, of the twentieth century it is quite different. For the twentieth century, the taste went to Art Nouveau around 1970, then to Art Deco in the 1920s. Something all in straight lines. Then came the next decade. It was initially a daring. Then the thing seemed too common. Hence a jump to the immediate post-war period, a pledge of “modernity”. Strangely enough, the 1950s have been holding up for over twenty years now. It must be said that then come more isolated creators than a style clearly defining an era. Hence the triumph of a few names, including those of the couple François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne.
A middle eastern taste
Nevertheless, the 50 remains at the “top” with Charlotte Perriand or Serge Mouille. A sale has just taken place on this subject at Christie’s New York on May 26. It was called “Paris in New York”. In particular, there was the content of an apartment furnished for the most part with creations by Jean Royère (1902-1981). The Frenchman made his debut in 1933. Success came to him very quickly. It was nevertheless when peace returned that he found his biggest contracts. The man worked less in France than in the Middle East, where his curvaceous creations appealed to both monarchs and large industrialists. Beirut or Alexandria then had eyes only for Europe. Royère therefore spread from Damascus to Tehran, with incursions into Peru. We can see it in his archives, deposited at the MAD (then Museum of Decorative Arts) in Paris in 1980. The designer was then preparing to leave France for the United States, where he died a few months later.
Jean Royère. Photo DR.
Regularly, Royère’s furniture (put back in the saddle by a gallery owner like Jacques Lacoste, who got down to a catalog raisonné released in 1999) therefore beat records at public sale. The ascent appears continuous. In November 2007, at Sotheby’s, one of its “polar” sofas was selling for 237,850 euros, including costs. Sensation! On May 26, the same model, also covered in dark blue, went for $ 1,230,000. A record at the moment. The rest sold just as well on May 26. 600,000 dollars, not the 35,000 of the estimate, for a table. 762,000 in order to obtain an “Eiffel Tower” lamp. 882,000 in exchange for a pair of armchairs, also hung in blue. Many copies of the “polar” models are also available in green, beige, red, turquoise and of course in white. Like bears.
Four little feet
This is not without its problems, however. What, in fact, is a “polar” seat? Four small feet emerging from a ball of upholstery and textile. I do not mind that the first one then remained more solid. It was not yet behaving self-destructing plastic foams. But if the fabric is not period and in good condition, what is original in this furniture that could almost come from Ikéa? The idea? The concept? Or the fact that it’s a very recognizable object? In other words nowadays a possible sign of wealth and good taste. Of wealth, above all!
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