The metal teapot with silver plated lining, ebony handle and silver strainer was produced at the metal workshop in the famous Bauhaus school of design in Dessau and typifies the simplicity and functional beauty that underpinned its philosophy. This example, which was entered from a private European collection and provenanced to the estate of Hajo Rosa, sold for $230,000 (£146,495).
The sale also included a samovar and kettle by Brandt of c.1925 and 1926 both provenanced to the designer. The samovar, another Bauhaus workshop-produced piece, realised a mid-estimate $44,000 (£28,025) but the kettle, an industrial metal piece modified by the designer for use in her own home by the addition of a handmade metal lid and a wooden handle, failed to find a buyer.
The highest price of the day – $290,000 (£184,715) – was reserved for a classic top-name piece of French deco, a piano designed by Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann in 1924 with a mechanism by Gaveau of Paris. Made in burl walnut and sycamore with gilt-bronze mounts, it is a close variant on the silvered bronze and macassar ebony version produced by Ruhlmann for the 1925 Paris Exposition.
Infuser a heady brew at $230,000
This icon of 20th century modernist design – Marianne Brandt’s celebrated tea infuser of 1927 was one of the highlights of Phillips de Pury & Luxembourg’s (19.5/10% buyer’s premium) 117-lot sale of 19th and 20th century design on December 11.
