Tom Dixon Furniture Collection For Bonhams Vision 21 Sale
Pubished June 30th, 2009Bonhams are delighted to announce the sale of a private collection of furniture by one of the UK’s leading design talents, Tom Dixon. The collection includes some of Dixon’s most iconic works as well as a series of fixtures and fittings privately commissioned for a London house. The collection will be offered in Bonhams’ Vision 21 sale on July 1st.
Tom Dixon, the former Creative Director of Habitat, began designing in his early twenties after having injured himself during a motorcycle accident. Dixon was self-taught and applied the welding skills he learnt from his passion with motorbikes to furniture design. His working methods were organic, and he preferred to develop and amend his designs in a hands-on way as opposed to working from a series of structured drawings.
In 1985 he formed `Creative Salvage’ alongside Mark Brazier-Jones and Nick Jones, and, focusing on recycling and transforming scrap metal into new functional sculptural forms. His furniture incorporated car parts, manhole covers, railings and pots and pans. His kitchen chair, which features in the present sale, with an estimate of £1,000 – 1,500, is constructed from a welded frying pan, fish skillets and Chinese ladles.
His work was maverick and anti-aesthetic, embodying the post-punk spirit. His bathroom furniture, radiators and heating pipes from this private commission are spontaneous rather than slick and polished. Also included are four of his early ‘S’ chairs, estimated at £3,000- 5,000, and made from welded steel and woven rush. This design helped establish Dixon and was later put into production by Italian furniture manufacturer Cappellini. Other Iconic works include his Pylon table and chair, estimated at £2,000-3,000 and £1,500- 2,500. Dixon’s designs have become recognised classics, inspiring many others in this field.
http://www.bonhams.com/vision21
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The undoubted highlight from the Korner single-owner sale is the stunningly illuminated miniature book of prayers known as The Korner Hours, dating to circa 1475-80 (lot 118, est. £600,000-800,000). This tiny book (75mm by 55mm), of breathtaking quality, is the forerunner in the trend for tiny editions, illustrated with hair-stroke painting to achieve incredible detail. It dates to a precisely recognisable moment in art history of sudden and dramatic leaps of innovation, and is the smallest and one of the oldest of a revolutionary new type of manuscript.
The painting is one of four Lowry’s included in the sale, the other three representing more conventional subjects for the painter.