Art deco, in Paris and Dublin

A €50 million auction of a French tycoon’s collection of 20th century design in Paris next week features furniture by Irish-born designer Eileen Gray – and in Dublin, there’s affordable art deco in three sales

NEXT WEEK in Paris, international auctioneers Christie’s will sell the Gourdon Collection, which it describes as one of the finest private collections of early 20th century decorative art and design ever to be offered at auction.

The catalogue features some 500 lots, including important one-off pieces, important prototypes, special commissions for prestigious patrons, and historic furniture and objects created by some of the artists for their own use by some of the most prestigious early 20th century designers including Jacques Ruhlmann, Jean Dunand, Pierre Chareau, Francis Jourdain and Irish-born Eileen Gray.

The collection is being sold by French tycoon Laurent Négro, a renowned collector of 20th-century design, and had been on display in a private museum at his medieval castle, the Chateau de Gourdon, in Provence.

The three-day sale, which begins on Tuesday at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, is expected to achieve between €35 million and €50 million.

Those figures could well turn out to be conservative. In 2009, a single armchair by Eileen Gray, from the estate of the late fashion designer Yves St Laurent, sold for €21.9 million – a record price for a piece of 20th century furniture.

Eileen Gray was born and grew up in Enniscorthy, Co Wexford but spent most of her life in France, where she was a leading figure in the early 20th century design movement known as art deco. Surviving examples of her furniture are eagerly sought by collectors and museums worldwide.

Some are in public ownership in Ireland, on permanent display at the National Museum’s Collins Barracks.

Among the Eileen Gray pieces going under the hammer is a Paravent Briques (a black lacquered Brick screen made from wood panels) estimated at €1 million to €1.5 million. A copy of the screen decorates the master bedroom at Farmleigh, the Irish government’s guest mansion in the Phoenix Park.

A Transatlantiquearmchair, formerly the property of Gray's friend and fellow-architect Jean Badovici, is estimated at €600,000-€800,000. The same estimate has been assigned to her Bibendumarmchair, in the style of the famous logo of tire-manufacturer Michelin.

More affordable art deco pieces are on offer in Dublin next week. At Adam’s auction on Tuesday, a dining suite by British art deco furniture designer Ray Hille, made from walnut and macassar ebony, comprising a dining table, eight dining chairs, a sideboard and a music cabinet complete with record player is estimated at €6,000-€8,000.

On Wednesday, O’Reillys auction of jewellery in Francis Street includes a 1930s art deco emerald and diamond ring by Van Cleef and Arpels estimated at €25,000-€28,000.

Meanwhile, art deco antiques dealer Niall Mullen is showing a selection of his stock in the RDS during this weekend’s art and antiques fair .