Tom Dixon sale at Bonhams
Radiator, Tom Dixon, welded copper, 1988
Bonhams is selling a collection of furniture by Tom Dixon on 1 July – if you’re not in the market for buying just go along and have a look
The collection is included in Bonhams’s Vision 21 sale of post-war fine art, photography and design furniture. It’s divided into 20 lots and consists of pieces made in the 1980s with a couple of later pieces from the early 1990s. This was the period when Dixon (who is self-taught) was just starting out as a designer, experimenting with the welding techniques he used on his motorbike to put together his proto-industrial style, post-punk furniture. The work from this period is gritty and innovative – lots of it is made with re-cycled and scrap material – produced before Dixon had some of the edges smoothed away by his experience in big business design.
Sale highlights include the wonderfully organic Crown Chair, (lot 91, estimate £1,500-£2000) made from welded steel with a giant flower bulb or crown shape curved to form the seat and a dramatic pared-down lyre shape for the back. There’s also a group of his early S-chairs made out of a sinuous welded steel frame covered with rush upholstery – these were later put into production by Cappellini. And don’t miss the welded copper radiator (lot 98 estimate £1,000-£1,500) which you would be forgiven for thinking was a piece of modernist sculpture rather than a functional object.
www.bonhams.com
