22nd Apr, 2026 10:00

Design & Contemporary
 
  Lot 197
 
Lot 197 - Attributed to Jean-Michel Frank (French 1895-1941) for COMTE, Argentina
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Attributed to Jean-Michel Frank (French 1895-1941) for COMTE, Argentina
Pair of Modernist Bridge Armchairs

Circa 1930s
Green leather, oak
Executed by COMTE, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Literature
Mo Amelia Teitelbaum, The Stylemakers: Minimalism and Classic-Modernism, 1915-45, New York, 2010, p. 218, 219 for similar examples

Preview: Barley Mow Centre

Provenance:
The collection of Mo Amelia Teitelbaum
Mo is a collector, researcher and author who specialises in the period that Jean-Michel Frank spent in the South Americas. She has dedicated much of her life to researching this once forgotten and underappreciated time in Frank's period of creativity. It was in Argentina that his friendship with the Chillian patron, collector and muse Eugenia Errazuriz deepened and he met Ignacio Pirovano, the man he would go on to found COMTE with.
Mo has penned two fascinating books on this period of Frank's life; The Stylemakers, Minimalism and Classic Modernism 1915-1945 and Jean-Michel Frank, Une Aventure Sud-Américaine. Both much lauded by Jean-Michel Frank collectors and enthusiasts of this period of Design and Modernism.
Chiswick Auctions would like to thank the Mo for allowing us to present the current work to auction, we feel privileged to have the opportunity to offer such a rare and important piece of Jean-Michel Frank's design history.

Notes:

These chairs were originally designed by Jean Michel Frank for The Kavanagh Building. A beacon of Modernism, the Kavanagh Buidling. A breathtaking skyscraper in the middle of the Buenos Aires and one of the most impressive buildings built in 1930s South America. The modernist block was financed by the wealthy heiress Corina (Cora) Kavanagh and designed by Gregorio Sánchez, Ernesto Lagos and Luis María de la Torre.

Completed in 1934, on the 5th of February that year, the newspaper La Nación wrote: ‘They were many who condemned this new tendency in architecture – “the modern style”.’ The architects Sánchez, Lagos and de la Torre simply affirmed: ‘We subscribe to the modern architectural concepts of pure geometrical form with an absence of embellishment.’

COMTE were commissioned to do the interior decoration and furnishings of the vast entrance hall. The walls were panelled in vellum squares, inspired by Jean-Michel Frank and supplied by his company, Chanaux & Co.The furniture, was mainly a mix of modern designs by Frank and Jean Royère.

Sold for £15,120

Includes Buyer's Premium


 

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