"Besnard's work is coming back into vogue because it goes so well with furniture from the late 1930s, 1940s and 1950s," Widdershoven said.
Another ceramic artist well represented in the sale is Emile Decoeur (1876-1953), an art potter who made stoneware and porcelain vessels in Asian shapes. "He was known for his understated, sophisticated, monochrome glazes," Widdershoven said. There are 24 Decoeur pots in the sale, in celadon, tan, gray and brown. Estimates range from US$800 to US$7,000.
Lagerfeld has a special appreciation for ceramics. "He identified a few ceramic artists he found important and went out to find the best examples he could," said Barbara Deisroth, director of Sotheby's department of 20th-century works of art. "He's into texture, tactile quality and serenity. He likes shapes that are pure and colors that are Chinese or African-inspired."
Marcel Coard (1889-1975) was a French decorator and furniture designer influenced by African, Oceanic and Asian art. "He did a lot of very refined, one-of-a-kind pieces," Widdershoven said. "He worked with lapis lazuli, silver and tortoiseshell inlay." Lagerfeld is selling Coard furniture in chiseled oak. Jean Cocteau's brother Paul once owned the African-style hammered-oak center table in the sale.
The Paris couturier Jacques Doucet (1853-1929), a noted collector and connoisseur, was another Coard patron. Around 1912 Doucet sold his paintings, books and 18th-century French furniture and took up Modernism. He got a new apartment and persuaded Paul Iribe and Legrain to help him decorate it. "Doucet's apartment, when it was completed, was called a `temple of Modern Art' by one critic, and in that temple a pantheon of designers and artists displayed their talents, in without doubt the most outstanding example of a modern interior at that time," Bayer writes in "Art Deco Interiors." "Unfortunately, few people saw the inside." Along with Coard, Eileen Gray, Pierre Chareau, Rene Lalique and Jean Dunand also contributed.
Coard's style, Deisroth said, was "not 1925 high-style Deco." She added: "It's beyond that refinement. This is gutsier and more visceral. There is no ornamentation."
Maison Desny, a Paris decorating firm on the Champs-Elysees from 1927 to 1933, created furniture, rugs, lighting, murals and decorative accessories for clients. One of the most striking lots in the sale is a silvered-metal centerpiece that is a study in geometric forms. Jigsaw-style, a dozen shiny vases somehow fit together on a rectangular mirrored plateau. "Very few of these were made and it's rare to have a full set," Deisroth said. "Andy Warhol had a set, without the tray, that we sold in 1988." Made in the 1930s, the Desny centerpiece is estimated to sell for US$45,000 to US$67,000.
Lagerfeld has a highly trained eye. "It's a well-edited collection," Widdershoven said. "Everything is good quality."
Deisroth added: "It is a very cohesive collection. It holds together better than anything I've sold before."
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