Donald Deskey

Private Collection, San Francisco
Fifty/50 Gallery, New York
Collection of Mark McDonald
Acquired from the above by the present owner, circa 2001

The American Architect, December 5, 1928, p. 754
Walter Rendell Storey, "American Designers Show Their Work," The New York Times, November 25, 1928, p. SM9
David A. Hanks and Jennifer Toher, Donald Deskey:  Decorative Designs and Interiors, New York, 1987, pp. 41, 88, 104 and 112
J. Stewart Johnson, American Modern 1925-1940:  Design for a New Age, New York, 2000, p. 116

Overall in very good condition. This lamp with a deeply modernist and sculptural form when viewed first hand. The silver-plated surfaces are wonderfully luminous and impart the piece with great drama and depth. The silvered surface with a few minor surface imperfections inherent in the production and with minor evidence of surface dirt and tarnish consistent with age and gentle handling. A few of the corners and high points of the lamp with a very light rubbing to the silver-plating and one are to the top measuring ½ inch in length with pitting at the proper right front corner, likely inherent. The lamp with a few shallow surface scratches, and minute indentations consistent with handling. One faint indentation to the back panel measuring less than ½ inch in diameter and only visible on close inspection. The seam at the top of the lamp with a minor are of possibly re-soldering with possible adjacent spots of added silvering. The underbase of the lamp with a second possible area re-soldering to the baseplate, which is not visible once the lamp is righted. The glass panels appear original with a few minute surface scratches and surface dirt. The fastening hardware and switch all appears original and undisturbed. The lamp is electrically stable and with a replaced electrical cord. A true masterwork of American design, encapsulating the design ideology of Deskey and American machine age. -----
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.

Donald Deskey’s engagement with American Modern design is famously associated with his interior designs for Radio City Music Hall, the design competition for which he won in the 1930s to collaborate with the commission’s architect, Edward Durell Stone. Deskey’s initial training as an architect at the University of California paved the way for his modern approach to interior design and industrial design in domestic and commercial spaces.

The zig-zag form, along with the machine aesthetic were hugely popularized in the Modern European design and architecture displayed at the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris. This exposition of Moderne and International Style design hugely influenced Deskey as a young industrial designer based in New York City.

The aesthetic of machine production coupled with the dramatic verticality and construction of the present lot place it as one of  the most outstanding masterworks of American Industrial Design to emerge from 1930s New York City makers. The play of reflective surfaces contrasts with the frosted glass, referencing the revolutionary architectural constructions in glass and steel of the modern skyscraper. The lamp’s form is evocative of the dynamic spirit of 1930s New York City architecture through its rectilinear contours as well as its silver-plated surfaces that suggest the stacked structure of a small building—a fantasy of architectonic utopianism played out on the scale of a domestic light fixture. The zig-zag form of the construction captures the vibrant energy and speed of the era, a time of great changes in industrial design and production through the visual vocabulary of the machine aesthetic.

There are presently six known examples of this remarkable lamp model by Donald Deskey.  The present lot was acquired by a private collector as a pair in San Francisco, and are the only two known examples executed in silver-plated metal.  Two table lamps of this model are documented in archive photographs in the interior of the Templeton Crocker residence in San Francisco.  It is likely that this pair of the lamps, including the present lot, are from the famed interior based on their subsequent emergence in the San Francisco area.  The mate to the present lot now resides in the collection of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.  An example with the chromium-plated finish is in the John C. Waddell Collection, promised gift to the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and another is in the permanent collection of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.