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collecting art-deco

Collecting Art-Deco

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Art-Deco

is a design style that burst onto the international scene in the 1920s. (Its name comes from the 1925 Paris Exposition International des Art Decoratifs et Industriels.) The sleek modern lines of the style appeared in architecture, furniture design, fabrics, posters, book covers, silver, glass, ceramics, clocks, boxes, cases, enamelware, jewelry and even clothing. Flamboyant and optimistic in the prewar years, it came out of Art Nouveau and melded into Art Moderne, a more industrial, machine-age facination with technology and new materials, such as plastics and chrome, in the 1930s. Art Deco motifs were Egyptian, Mayan, cubistic and futuristic. The craftsmanship was superb.

Art-Deco was rediscovered by collectors in the late 1960s, and prices escalated in the 1970s. Then, as with many other antiques and collectibles, the market softened in the 1980s, particularly for mass-produced items in good supply. Example: A Lalique colored-glass vase that sold for $15,000 in the late 1970s fell to $6,000. When collectors and dealers sensed that Lalique was becoming cheap again, they started a new wave of buying, and the price roller coaster started up again.

Furniture by an Art-Deco master like Emile Jacques Ruhlmann or lacquerwork by Jean Dunand (most famous for furnishings on the liner Normandie) has not weakened in price. The workmanship and rarity of such attributed pieces keep them at a premium. A record was set in Monte Carlo for a coiffeuse (dressing table) designed by Ruhlmann with Dunand lacquerwork - $200,900. You may still find chairs (and sometimes tables) for under $3,000 by Louis Sue and Andre Mare, Jules Leleu and Dominique. American names to look for are Donald Deskey (responsible for much of the Radio City Music Hall decor) and Paul Frankel.

For the beginning collector: Look for well built wooden furniture. It was properly dried and crafted in the 1920s, using such rare woods as amboyna and black macasser ebony, which won't be seen again.

For the serious investor - collector, only signed, handmade pieces of great quality are safe buys for the future.

Mas-produced 20th-century decorative arts may not be an investment, but they are great fun to buy and use.

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