Trova, Majorelle, Galle, Dunand, Chihuly Bring nearly $800,000 in St. Louis

ST LOUIS, MO.

:Contemporary works of art and Twentieth Century design furniture, pottery, silver and glass were offered at Ivey-Selkirk Auctioneers on November 6 and 7. This semiannual Twentieth Century Design sale included more than 748 lots and brought a total of $746,620.

Items ranged from an important and massive pair of antique cast bronze gates from the Continental Bank Building in Chicago, which sold for $28,750 to a Northwest telephone bidder, to a stainless steel "Double Walking Figure" by St Louis artist Ernest Trova, dated 1986, for $66,300 to a St Louis floor bidder. This impressive figure stood 6 feet in height and spanned 8 feet 61/2 inches in length and was originally intended as an edition of nine, which was not completed. Andrew Kagan illustrated the maquette for this sculpture in his Study/Falling Man, published 1987.

A highly important marquetry and metal carved exotic and fruitwood Art Nouveau display cabinet designed by Louis Majorelle (French, 1859-1926) sold for $50,600. This significant example was commissioned by the Galle family of glass fame for their Nancy, France, home at rue Pont-Casse. Majorelle was a prominent member of the Ecole de Nancy, founded by Emile Galle in 1901. An elaborate center table by Galle, signed "EG" and dated 1887, depicting a most exceptional transition from the Belle Epoque into the Art Nouveau, sold for $31,050.

A bid of $18,400 was paid by an East Coast telephone bidder for a Jean Dunand (Swiss, 1877-1942) black lacquered wood small table, circa 1925, which far exceeded its presale estimate of $3,5/4,500. Dunand is known as the Art Deco master of the sculpted and lacquered 32-panel Chariot of Aurora from the Normandie ocean liner.

Dale Patrick Chihuly, the most famous ornate glass maker of the late Twentieth Century in America, and born in Tacoma, Wash., in 1941, made the five-piece Persian Series ensemble, dated 1989, with adjustable dimensions that sold for $17,250 to a St Louis businessman. A detail of the vibrant orange and yellow in this series covered the front and back of the Ivey-Selkirk Twentieth Century Design and Fine Art catalog. Other glass that sold included an R. Lalique blue vase, Perruches, circa 1919, with molded signature, for $12,075 to an East Coast bidder. A Tiffany Studios, New York, leaded glass floor lamp, library lamp and dome shade sold for $25,300, $8,050 and $12,650, respectively.

A variety of works of art by American artists Marvin Cone, Siegfried Reinhardt, Tom Wesselmann and Andy Warhol were offered, as well as works by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso and Alphonse Mucha, a Czechoslovakian. An outstanding still life with pears by Cone, measuring 9 by 12 inches, sold for $18,400 to a West Coast bidder. Warhol's "Campbell's Tomato Soup," color silkscreen on shopping bag, signed in pencil "to Jack Andy Warhol" sold for $6,037. The Mucha lithograph poster, "Lorenzaccio," 1896, and published by F. Champenois, Paris, sold for $10,350 to a St Louis collector.

The innovative French father and son team of Gustave Roger Sandoz and Gerard Sandoz designed a parcel-silver gilt, lacquer and eggshell lacquer cigarette case in varying colors depicting a Cubist Parisian street scene with figure. This handmade luxury item is from the ex-collection of Colonel Edwin Hodge, Ligonier, Penn., owner of the Pittsburgh Iron and Forge Company, and was purchased for $6,037 by an Israeli telephone bidder.

Silver dispersed throughout the auction included an extensive "Acorn" sterling silver flatware service by Georg Jensen and originally designed by Johan Rohde in 1915; it reached its high estimate, selling at $13,800. A Maria Regnier 84-piece sterling flatware service priced at $7,475 and an exceptional Buccellati sterling hand-hammered centerpiece of rococo design and weighing 34.85 troy ounces sold locally for $7,187.

Prices reported include the 15 percent buyer's premium.