Unique Chareau floor lamp lights the way to a new record

WHAT: Sometimes something savvy people collect is high art that later becomes iconic. Consider the circa 1923 floor lamp shown with this column: Created by French designer Pierre Chareau, the design was radical and the materials used (steel and alabaster) were unorthodox for lighting of the era. Made for the apartment of Parisian socialites, the lamp was a sensation from day one.

When one soared to $2.1 million in a recent sale of design objects at Christie’s New York, the result set a record for Chareau. The entire sale result was $8.3 million.

MORE: Called “Religieuse” (a nun), the lamp evokes a nun’s habit and headdress. Light from the alabaster panels is that of an aura. Just a few were made, with either wood or metal bases. Metal versions are most rare.

SMART COLLECTORS KNOW: This is a dramatic design, certainly for the time it was made. Unsettling and controversial, it was seriously ahead of its time. Call it a trailblazer.

HOT TIP: Chareau was also an art collector and dealer, a known figure in the world of art and design who amassed works by Picasso, Braque, Arp, Chagall, Ernst and the like.

BOTTOM LINE: Smart collectors will note how the lamp dovetails with the exhibit “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” on display through Oct. 8 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The theme was also front and center at the recent celebrity-heavy Met Ball.

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