Stunning Stoclet Steals the Show
21st June 2023
Six items of silver made for Palais Stoclet in Brussels have sold at auction in Salisbury for over £600,000.
The iconic designs by Josef Hoffmann were made at the Wiener Werkstätte for the home of Belgian businessman, Adolphe Stoclet, and feature malachite squares as decoration on the simple geometric forms.
The four lots, consisting of a fruit tray, a pair of preserve pots, a pair of salts and a circular centrepiece, were all part of a much larger set - very few pieces of which have ever come onto the market.
“There is no real precedent at auction for works of this cultural and design significance,” explained Design specialist, Michael Jeffery, who was in charge of the sale at Woolley and Wallis. “We expected our conservative estimates to be exceeded, but these prices have far surpassed any hopes that we might have had pre-sale.”
The silver had remained in the Stoclet family after Adolphe’s death in 1949, passing down to the current vendor, who had no idea of its current commercial value, which Jeffery attributes to its historical importance.
“These rare pieces exemplify Josef Hoffmann’s style and that of the Vienna Secession movement, which he founded; favouring geometric forms, clean lines and small squares. The Palais Stoclet in Brussels, for which they were made, echoes the geometric forms and represented a turning point from historical styles to what we now think of as modern architecture,” he explained.
The key piece among those being sold was a square tray, believed to have been used as a fruit tray and designed before 1908. A determined phone bidder competed with a sizeable absentee bid and six other phone lines to drive the price up to £290,000. That set the pace, with the same phone bidder eventually winning the next three lots, thereby keeping the pieces together. The premium-inclusive total for the four lots was £636,300.
The silver was sold as part of the Fine Arts and Crafts auction on 21st June, and provided the Design department with two record prices.
