Auction alert: Modern Living sale

The Mallams Modern Living sale takes place on Wednesday 17^th Aug 2022 from 10am at their Oxford premises. Up for sale is a good selection of quality, European mid century modern and later art, furniture and homewares. We’ve selected a few to showcase in this week’s Auction Alert.

The Buyer’s premium is 30% (inc. of VAT) of the hammer price. Bidding online via the Mallams website doesn’t incur any further charges. However, if you bid and win items via the-saleroom.com costs an extra 4.95% plus VAT of the final selling price.

Mallams do not have in house packing or shipping facilities but can suggest companies to assist with this.

Lot 48: Maurice Burke (20^th Century) for Arkana
Pair of ‘Tulip’ white stools or tables, stamped ‘Arkana’ to metal disc on the base, 45cm x 51.5cm (2). Overall wear, scuffs and scratches. Consistent with age and use. Otherwise ok.
Estimate: £100 – £200

Lot 50: Light elm rectangular coffee table, with Ercol circular label to the underside
104cm x 36cm x 47cm. Overall with signs of wear and use. Some watermarks and staining to the top.
Estimate: £100 – £200

Lot 67: Pair of lamino lounge chairs
Teak, with patterned upholstery, designed in 1956, stamped to the underside ‘Swedese, Yngve Ekström, Made in Sweden’, 100cm high overall (2). One chair has a split and repair. Is now very sturdy. Overall signs of wear and some scratches. Upholstery is not original. Very comfortable. Otherwise seems ok.
Estimate: £500 – £800

Lot 77: Vico Magistretti (1920-2006) for Cassina ‘Veranda’ black leather reclining armchair, with fold out footrest
108cm high with the back extended, 94cm wide overall x 63cm deep without the footrest. Note: The matching sofa and a matching armchair is also available as separate lots in this sale. Overall wear, some scratches and scuffs as expected. Consistent with age and use. Some indentations to the leather. The folding mechanism is very stiff, but does open and close as seen in photographs. Some indentations to the leather.
Estimate: £150 – £300

Lot 86: Alessandro Albrizzi (1934-1994) glass and chrome coffee table, with purple coloured glass
Top measures 152cm x 76cm, the base measures 143cm x 61cm. The glass is not fixed to the base, it just sits on top. Overall wear and some scratches, consistent with age and use. Some small chips to the edges/corners in places.
Estimate: £300 – £500

Lot 87: Merrow Associates Ltd glass topped table and four chairs
Estimate: £300 – £500
The smoked glass top measures 117cm across, 71.5cm high overall, the chairs measure 74cm high approx overall (5). Overall wear, scratches and scuffs as expected, consistent with age and use. Small chips to the glass table top in places.

Lot 233: David Shrigley (b.1968) Fruit and Vegetable series
‘If you don’t like tomatoes’, ‘The moment has arrived’, ‘They were too long’, ‘You win this mushroom’, ‘When life gives you a lemon’, offset lithographs, unframed, 80cm x 60cm (5)
Estimate: £400 – £600

Lot 299: David Sharp at Rye Pottery slipware charger
Decorated with a tree, incised signature to the reverse ‘David Sharp Pottery, Rye, E. Sussex, England’, 29cm across. Overall seems ok with minimal glaze faults.
Estimate: £50 – £80

Lot 336: Lisa Larson (b.1931) for Gustavberg (sic) ‘Thalia’ ceramic vase
With impressed mark and label to the base, 25.5cm high. With damage and repair to the rim. Overall wear and some minor firing flaws as expected.
Estimate: £40 – £60

Lot 342: Kitty Kahane (b.1960) for Rosenthal collection of ceramics
Comprising of: a teapot, 22cm high overall, pot with cover, 14cm high, large bowl 30cm across x 13cm high and a smaller bowl 20cm across x 9cm high overall (4). Overall ok with minimal signs of wear and use.
Estimate: £50 – £100

Lot 343: Scheurich Fat Lava (West Germany) ceramic vase with red glaze
Estimate: £50 – £100
Marked ‘517-38 W. Germany’ to the base, 38cm high. Crazing to the glaze, minor display marks and wear, otherwise seems ok.

Lot 384: Geoffrey Baxter (1922-1995) for Whitefriars
‘Pineapple’ tangerine glass vase, pattern no 9731, unmarked, 18cm high, ‘Totem’ pewter glass vase, pattern no 9671, unmarked, 27cm high and a ‘Random strapping’ tangerine glass vase, pattern no 9797, unmarked, 18.5cm high (3)
Estimate: £100 – £200

Designer Desire: Lisa Larson

Born in 1931, Lisa Larson is a Swedish ceramic designer. She worked for Gustavsberg, under Stig Lindberg, from the 1954 through to 1980 when she branched out on her own working for, amongst others, Royal Krona, Duka, Åhléns department stores and Kooperativa Förbundet.

Larson is probably best known for her small sculptures of animals and children of the world, but we absolutely adore her glazed tiles. The Viking ship at the top right of the mosaic is ours – and we’ve also got an elephant. So, it’s a collection of just two at the moment – but we’ve always got our eyes peeled hoping to happen across more. 🙂

As you can probably tell, Larson is an animal lover – but she verges on the obsessive when it comes to cats!

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If you have a look at the short film below, she has the most beautiful sculpture of a cat which just begs to be stroked – so tactile. If you don’t speak Swedish, you can turn on subtitles by clicking on the left icon (next to the one that looks like a cog) along the bottom panel.

Image credits:1st Dibs | Etsy | eBay

The elephant in the room

We’ve chosen this fabulous wall plaque that we bought on Monday as the week’s favourite buy. It’s only Wednesday, but we don’t think we’ll better it in the next few days!

This particular elephant in the room is the work of Swedish designer Lisa Larson – produced at the renowned Gustavsberg factory where she worked for over two decades.

We love the design – the raised, textured decoration forming the elephant and riders’ decorative costumes. The colourway is very attractive too with gorgeous cool blues and chalky whites.

The condition is very good; it has the ‘Lisa L’ stamp to the front of the plaque and Gustavsberg paper label to the reverse. Everything a collector would want.

It joins another one of her tiles in the H is for Home shop – a contrasting yet equally fabulous design in the form of a Viking ship.

Tile-tastic!

We were out & about in Huddersfield the other day and took some photos of these amazing tiled mosaics.

They’re situated in a 1960s-built precinct development in the town centre – they really capture the era.

On the subject of tiles, we recently put this image on Flickr. It’s a 1960s tile by Platt depicting a prince on horseback with a hunting falcon – we absolutely love it! We’re planning on having it framed.

We got this vintage bird tile ready-framed which is very effective. We think it was made by Maw & Co. It reminds us of Lisa Larson in style. We bought it from Wowie Zowie in Chorlton. This shop is well worth a visit if you’re in Manchester – they have some lovely stuff, imaginatively displayed.

This large tile/plaque is indeed by Lisa Larson – she’s a real favourite of ours! It was designed for Gustavsberg of Sweden in the 1960s.

Here it is in its usual home on a shelf in our lounge.

Here’s another one of our vintage tiles in situ – this one’s Italian – it sits happily on our bathroom shelf. Here it is in close up.

The most recent addition to our little collection was picked up yesterday. It’s quite different to the others in the fact that it represents a real place – it depicts the Euromast in Rotterdam designed in the 1950s – we really like the modernist feel to it.

The final item in our burgeoning tile collection is by Kenneth Townsend. We featured it before in our Z is for… Zoo blog post.

The lion is an early piece from his Menagerie range. Hopefully, we’ll be able to find some of his other animals to fill our shelves!

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: Lisa Larson

Auction alert: Modern Living sale

Designer Desire: Lisa Larson

The elephant in the room

Tile-tastic!