Maison Desny

Guillaume Janneau, Le Luminaire:  Art Deco Lampen 1925-1937, Paris, 1992, pp. 161 and 165 (for related models)

Overall very good condition. This is an incredibly rare assembled set of designs by a firm with a limited output. These designs are all small in scale and demonstrate the modern lines and aesthetic that dominates the firm’s large scale work. As seen in the catalogue illustration, some of the chromed surface with surface scratches, rubbing, minor discolorations and light pitting. Each of the lamps are electrically stable and current wired with European plugs and adapters for US use.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Biographical information remains elusive on the two designers, M. Desnet and Clement Nauny (1900-1969), who in 1927, with the financial backing of a M. Tricot, established La Maison Desny, its name a contraction of their surnames. Located initially on the rue Cambon and then at 122 Avenue des Champs-Elysees in the French capital, the firm closed its doors at some point following the death of Desnet in 1933. Such a relatively short operational life span defies the firm's prodigious output, both in terms of the range and creativity of its products and of its high quality of industrial manufacture. No other design firm captured with more panache the emerging machine-age aesthetic of the late 1920s, that which culminated in the formation of the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM) by like-minded progressive architects and designers. The crisp symmetry and uniformity of Desny's compositions in metal and glass, in which the interplay of perpendiculars and contrasting planes was carefully balanced against the object's intended function, stood out starkly from the host of other metalware household objects presented at the annual Paris Salons in the interwar years.

Desny's distinctive style manifests itself clearly in the models offered here (lots 87-93), which in their rigorous geometric configurations and architectural proportions appeared novel at the time, even as they do to today's observer. 

The floor lamp (lot 88) shows Desny's adherence to the doctrine espoused by the period's ultra-modern lighting engineers: it was wrong to consider a room well lit if it was intensely so; the essential factor was to eliminate centralized points of illumination and in their place to provide localized light, either for reading purposes or to highlight a prized object or painting. To this end, the lamp's sockets are housed in cube-formed shades that adjust to project the light rays where needed. Other Desny floor models incorporate anglepoise and telescopic mechanisms that can rotate or be inverted to achieve the same result.

Offered also here (lot 87) is a group of nine bibelots lumineux (illuminated curios), the genre of lighting in which the firm especially excelled. Included is a mix of veilleuses (night lights)) and brule parfums (incense burners) rendered in nickel- and chromium-plated metal and frosted glass. These, viewed today as amongst the epoque's most chic objets d'art rather than as light fixtures per se, had no other function than to serve as soft ambient lighting or to brighten a gloomy corner.

Amongst the lots is a utility box fitted with lidded compartments (lot 92), of which the prototype was designed by the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens for his own residence before the model was put into production by Desny. The box is a miniaturized version of one of the modernist houses Mallet-Stevens designed on the street that bears his name in Paris' upscale 16th arrondissement .The light plays off its polished angular surfaces, which are in electro-plated nickel, a material adopted also at the time by many traditional silversmithing firms, such as Christofle, as it is a highly reflective alloy that simulates the opulence of silver at far less cost.
Alastair Duncan