A dining table by Denmark’s late Peder Moos has broken the world auction record for a piece of Nordic design, selling for over £600,000.
The one-off table was sold as part of London auction house Phillips‘ October design and Nordic design auctions, which resulted in a total of £5.2 million sales.
Moos’ dining table was designed in 1952 for the Villa Aubertin in Nakskov, Denmark, and features thin curved legs supported by wing-shaped braces. It achieved more than four times its pre-sale estimate, reaching £602,500 to surpass the world record.
The record was previously held by Danish architect and designer Finn Juhl’s 1949 Chieftain armchair, which sold for £422,500 in 2013. Until now, the highest selling Moos piece was a 1956 cabinet, which sold in 2014 for £106,297.
Moos was trained as a cabinetmaker and later studied at Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. Apart from a trolley and a coffee table manufactured by Fritz Hansen, he made all of his furniture himself. Moos’ work – which was predominantly made in wood – has been exhibited in Stockholm, the Hague and New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
“In our Design and Nordic Design sales we saw a discerning market led by great connoisseurs and collectors, choosing works by established, mid-century designers,” said Alexander Payne, head of design at Phillips.
Earlier this year, the auction house broke another world record – Australian designer Marc Newson’s Lockheed Lounge kept its title as the world’s most expensive design object after selling for more than £2 million.
Phillips has also held auctions for furniture designed by Ross Lovegrove and a paper teahouse by architect Shigeru Ban.
Pieces from British ceramicist Lucie Rie and artist Peter Collingwood broke individual records, with Rie’s footed bowl achieving £68,500 and Collingwood’s Macrogauze wall hanging selling for £22,500.
Other top Nordic sellers included Barbro Nilsson’s 1940s Gyllenrutan, blå rug, Hans J Wegner‘s set of 10 Cowhorn chairs and Dolphin folding armchair, and Pould Henningsen’s spiral ceiling light; all of which achieved more than £50,000 each.
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