<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Sotheby's Auctions F\u00E9lix Marcilhac's Exquisite Collection of Art Deco\nF\u00E9lix Marcilhac puts the rarefied contents of his Paris house up for auction at Sotheby's\n\"Nobody knew who designed the table when I bought it nearly 30 years ago,\" Marcilhac says of this bold console, which was created around 1930 by the American-born designer, decorator, and writer Eyre de Lanux (1894\u20131996). \"But I eventually compared it to similar pieces she designed, among them a bed, a carpet, and another table, and discovered it was by that great artist. The surface is engraved and then painted, which is an African technique.\" Due to the rarity of Lanux's work\u2014she only worked from 1927 to 1935\u2014the table is estimated at $82,600\u2013$110,000.\n\"I call this the boudoir style,\" Marcilhac says of this iconic 1913 Nautilus chair by French designer and illustrator Paul Iribe (1883\u20131935). \"It is so raffin\u00E9e, so feminine, so French, it could be from the 18th century.\" The high-backed fauteuil, which is signed and dated, is estimated to bring $206,500\u2013$275,000.\nA spectacular collaboration between French designers Jean Dunand (1877\u20131942) and Jean Goulden (1878\u20131946), this unique and signed 1921 cabinet is lacquered with an abstract landscape. \"You see the mountains, the valley, and the sky,\" Marcilhac says, adding that the scene is reminiscent of the landscapes Goulden would have been familiar with in Macedonia and Turkey during World War I, when he was a battlefield doctor. \"When he returned to Paris,\" the dealer continues, \"he made two pieces of furniture with Dunand and exhibited them at Galerie Georges Petit. This is one of them.\" Goulden works are exceptionally rare, and the console's $409,000\u2013$545,000 estimate reflects it.\n\"I bought this Andr\u00E9 Groult gueridon in July 1970, just before I went to India for two months,\" Marcilhac recalls. \"I had 8,000 francs to last me on the trip, but two days before I was leaving, I saw the table and spent 4,500 francs on it. I was so pleased, even though I ended up having to travel third-class on the trains and sleep on the floor of a railway station.\" The shagreen-on-oak table, a singular design from 1925, is expected to sell for $137,700\u2013$165,200.\nMarcilhac believes that this circa-1915 letter tray, made of engraved-and-stained ivory, is a design by Paul Iribe. \"The vase is a shape he used for lamps and in movie sets he created when he was working in Hollywood in the '20s,\" the dealer observes. The tray was originally owned by couturier Jacques Doucet, who, presumably, kept it on his desk, as did Marcilhac for nearly three decades. \"Everything I have, I use,\" Marcilhac says. \"Someone came to my house once and was shocked to see a very rare Maurice Marinot vase holding flowers. But isn't that what it was made for?\" Sotheby's expects the tray to realize $13,800\u2013$16,500.\nMade in 1932 from a design created three years earlier, this one-of-a-kind carpet by Ernest Boiceau depicts an alternating series of hills and pagodas shaded by towering trees. \"The colors are fabulous,\" says Marcilhac, though he regrets that not much about Boiceau is known. \"There is a small book about his work, but since so many of his creations are unsigned we don't know much about what he did.\" The knotted-wood-and-cotton rug, which sports the embroidered signature \"EBOICEAU,\" is estimated at $109,000\u2013$137,700.\n\"When I bought this, it had been cut into three pieces, which made it easier to hide during the Second World War,\" Marcilhac says of this serpent fireplace-screen frame by Lucien Gaillard (1861\u20131942). \"I have always been frightened by snakes myself, so having these motifs around is a way to try to become less afraid.\" Fashioned around 1900 using silvered bronze, it is expected to net $54,000\u2013$82,000.\nMade of enameled terra-cotta, this circa-1900 centerpiece is by Auguste Delaherche and illustrates a basket overflowing with fruit\u2014grapes, bananas, even a melon. It was one of Marcilhac's favorite possessions. \"I loved this piece,\" he says, \"and it was always on the table when I received people for dinner.\" It is expected to go for $2,750\u2013$3,400.\nJean-Michel Frank's furniture is well known but the 20th-century French designer also devised a multitude of chic accessories that were sold at his Paris shop. \"He created vases, lamps, even match boxes, but my wife kept those for herself,\" Marcilhac says. \"He was a really great designer, with a preference for simple, straight lines but very rich materials.\" The dealer attributes the two small circa-1930 boxes in this lot to Frank because of their reductivist silhouettes and straw marquetry, a specialty of Frank (1895\u20131941) and his partner, Adolphe Chanaux (1887\u20131965). Though the straw covering on one of them has split and cracked over the years, the boxes are estimated at $4,100\u2013$6,900.\nMarcilhac tried using this futuristic polished-zinc desk by Michel Dufet (1888\u20131985) but found the inventive 1928 creation impossible to tolerate. \"I had it in my house for two or three years but was so pleased to put it into storage,\" the dealer says with a laugh, adding that it was not very useful. \"It is too small, too aggressive, and so cold to the touch that you cannot work at it. It was a demonstration model\u2014Dufet was asked by a mining company to promote the metal, which was used most of the time for roofing.\" Shown at the Salon d'Automne in 1929, the desk, which features a central storage area that opens like a fan, is estimated at $275,300\u2013$344,100."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.architecturaldigest.com/gallery/felix-marcilhac-auction-sothebys-slideshow>