Modern times for Los Angeles Antiques Show
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Following the strictest possible definition, this 1930s sterling silver Art Deco tea set by Charles Boynton won’t be an antique for two more decades, but it will be one of the designs on display at the 16th annual Los Angeles Antiques Show, April 14-17 at the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica.
Bringing modern design to the show is a strategic gambit based on the current market, said co-chairman Patrick Dragonette.
‘With the Internet, you can shop from bed globally,’ he said, referring to how easily customers can see a range of designs from a variety of sources. ‘This in some ways makes the show obsolete. The inclusion of 20th century dealers gives it new life.’
More than 60 exhibitors include the Los Angeles store Downtown, which will be showcasing 1930s designs by modern neo-classicist T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, who collaborated with architect James Dolena on the legendary Bel-Air mansion Casa Encantada. Reform Gallery will highlight the work of Midcentury Modern designer Paul McCobb. Todd Merrill Antiques of New York will feature pieces by Italian designer Gio Ponti.
Dragonette is exhibiting post-World War II furniture by William Haines, as well as the 2000 bronze and copper Hosta chaise, right, one of an edition of eight by the French sculptor Claude Lalanne.
Lalanne and her late husband, who signed their pieces Les Lalanne, are famed for monumental surrealistic pictures, including a 4-foot cabbage on chicken legs and a life-size rhinoceros with a desk incorporated into its stomach.
For purists, 18th and 19th century antiques will include a teapot from the Silver Fund of London with a $28,000 tag; add a zero and you can purchase a pair of lion head chairs by sculptor Diego Giacometti offered by new Los Angeles Antiques Show vendor Galerie Crial. (If the $280,000 price seems unbelievable, consider that a similar pair of chairs sold for more than $400,000 in pre-recession 2007.)
Many items on display won’t be marked, but prices will be available on request, said co-chairman Robert Willson, owner of Downtown: ‘The show is for education and enjoyment as well as sales.’
-- David A. Keeps
Photos, from top: The Silver Fund of London, Claude Lalanne