Working across Paris, New York and Argentina, Jean-Michel Frank (1895–1941) created furniture and lighting that defined his vision of modernism. Developed during the turbulence of the interwar years, his interiors offered a calm counterpoint, using a refined palette of vellum, bleached leather, shagreen, mica and parchment. His clients included the Vicomte Charles de Noailles, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Elsa Schiaparelli and Guerlain, and his interiors were often designed to complement collections of modern art by Picasso, Léger and Matisse.
In Argentina, Frank’s work entered a new phase through his collaboration with COMTE, the Buenos Aires design firm founded in 1932 by Ignacio and Ricardo Pirovano, José “Pepe” Enrique Tivoli and Mariano Mansilla Moreno. COMTE became one of Argentina’s leading design firms, adapting Frank’s designs for local commissions while preserving their elegance and clarity. The result was a distinctive fusion of French modernism and Argentine craftsmanship.
A fascination for materials was central to Jean-Michel Frank’s practice as a designer. He selected materials with various textures, from straw to mica, plaster, terracotta, shagreen, obsidian, and parchment, like paints in a palette that contributed to the greater decorative scheme. In keeping with his modernist contemporaries, however, Frank did not subscribe to a hierarchy of materials. To this end, he was among the first designers to clad furniture in shagreen and parchment, but he also applied traditional materials in novel ways, for example covering walls in straw marquetry and upholstering with canvas.
Jean-Michel Frank (French 1895-1941) for Chanaux et Pelletier
Rare and Important Low Table.
Estimate £80,000 - £120,000
The physical properties of mica have been revered by artisans since ancient times. A mineral composed of aluminum silicate, it is heat resistant and naturally cleaves into perfect sheets, which makes it an ideal material for glazing windows, as the ancient Romans did. Japanese artisans admired its metallic luster, inlaying it in lacquer and applying the luminous powder to block prints. It’s clear that Jean-Michel Frank revered mica as much as his ancient predecessors did and reserved its use for some of his most important commissions, such as the sitting room of Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles, where he clad the fireplace surround in mica (1926). The same treatment appeared again in Templeton Crocker’s San Francisco penthouse (1929). Similar mica-covered tables appeared in the designer’s own smoking room (1938).
A rare Tric-Trac low table by Jean-Michel Frank for COMTE, made in Argentina circa 1930. Executed in mahogany, oak, gilt leather and brass, the table bears an applied COMTE plaque to the underside and comes from the collection of Mo Amelia Teitelbaum.
A similar example appears in the Chanaux files for the Grand Salon of the Born Residence commission in San Isidro, one of the most celebrated South American interiors associated with Frank. Prepared in Paris by Jean-Michel Frank and his circle, including Alberto Giacometti, Christian Bérard, Salvador Dalí and Emilio Terry between 1936 and 1938, the installation was ultimately carried out by COMTE, with Frank himself present in 1940.
Jean-Michel Frank (French 1895-1941) for COMTE, Argentina
Tric-Trac Low Table.
Estimate £6,000 - £8,000
The present table encapsulates Frank’s ability to combine utility, elegance and understatement, while also demonstrating the central role COMTE played in translating his ideas into major Argentine interiors.
Upholstered in white leather, these chairs were made for the Casares family, one of the most prominent and stylish families in Argentina and owners of a leading dairy brand until 1960.
Their country estate, Huetel, situated some 320 kilometres from Buenos Aires, was an imposing residence conceived by the French architect Jacques Dunant in an historicising style. A descendant of the family, Silvia Casares de Peña, was a close friend of Lia Elena, the wife of Ignacio Pirovano, who hosted Frank daily during the six months he spent in Buenos Aires in 1940.
Jean-Michel Frank (French 1895-1941) for COMTE
Pair of 'Confortable' armchairs
Estimate £5,000 - £6,000
These armchairs were stripped back in 2014 to reveal their intact original structure before being reupholstered in the same white leather used for Frank’s own armchairs in his Paris apartment. They offer a particularly vivid example of how Frank’s most recognisable forms were reinterpreted through COMTE for elite Argentine patrons.
Executed in vellum parchemin, oak and tubular brass, these lamps are based on a Jean-Michel Frank design and were adapted by COMTE for a collector living in the famous Kavanagh Building, the great Art Deco skyscraper of Buenos Aires and, at the time, the tallest of its kind in Latin America.
COMTE, Argentina
Pair of 'Croisillon' table lamps
Estimate £1,000 - £2,000
The apartment’s lobby was decorated with vellum panels from Frank’s company Chanaux & Co. and furnished with models by Frank and Jean Royère. These lamps therefore sit within one of the most important architectural and decorative contexts of modern Argentine design.
Frank was a master of elegant, classically inflected minimalism. He combined the fine proportions of the late 18th century with a uniquely modern sensibility, tempering the severity of modern linear design with warm, rich and often unusual materials such as shagreen, mica, straw marquetry and vellum. The ‘Croisillon’ lamps embody that balance perfectly.
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