Pierre Jeanneret Rare and important demountable coffee table, designed for Pierre Jeanneret's private apartment, Chandigarh circa 1953-1954 Teak. 41.6 x 79.1 x 79.5 cm (16 3/8 x 31 1/8 x 31 1/4 in.)
Provenance Private residence, Chandigarh, circa 1953-1954 Acquired from the above by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew 63 Gloucester Place, London, 1954 Thence by descent to the present owner, granddaughter of Jane Drew Canterbury, 1996 Literature Beryl Platts, 'The Architect As Collector, The Modern Collection Of Maxwell Fry And Jane Drew’, Country Life, 29 September, 1966, illustrated p. 782, fig. 2 Eric Touchaleaume and Gerald Moreau, Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret The Indian Adventure: Design-Art-Architecture, Paris, 2010, pp. 268, 323, 588 Catalogue Essay The second-floor landing at 63 Gloucester Place was the location of the present lot after Edwin Maxwell Fry (1899-1987) and Dame Jane Beverly Drew (1911-1996) departed from the city in 1954. They both arrived at Chandigarh in 1951, although Jane arrived a little later due to her commitments for the Festival of Britain. The table remained part of the Fry’s conscientious and refined collection until it became part of Jane Drew’s estate and thence by descent to her granddaughter. Set within a Regency Terrace, 63 Gloucester Place was not only the Fry and Drew residence it was also the location of the firm Fry, Drew and Partners. The author Beryl Platts best describes the terrace in the following article after visiting Jane Drew at Gloucester Place as: ‘tall, dignified houses, whose successive owners have made them taller by adding a froth of gay attic storeys. High ceilings, wide landings and tall windows seem to set the pace for free-ranging futuristic ideas’ (Beryl Platts, 'The architect As Collector, The Modern Collection Of Maxwell Fray And Jane Drew’, Country Life, 29 September, 1966, p. 782). The intriguing title of this article ‘The Architect As Collector’ is the concept that it presents the architect as the modern collector and compared to the surfeit amount of contemporary articles that appear on today’s platforms, these are generally somewhat focused on anodyne collections and interiors, but the Fry’s deploy intellectual juxtapositions throughout their interior and for example they superimpose the present lot with a sculpture by the artist Gerald Gladstone It is most likely that the present lot can be considered the first example of Pierre Jeanneret’s furniture designed for Chandigarh to be acquired and contextualised as part of a collection specifically within an interior. The present lot applies many of the design principles and sensibilities of the work that Pierre Jeanneret did in collaboration with Charlotte Perriand when working on a series of furniture for L’Équipment de la Maison. It was an ambitious project that began in 1946, which included a comprehensive and essential range of furniture that could be easily built by hand and constructed. L’Équipment de la Maison was rigorous in its approach to produce robust furniture devoid of decoration and most importantly that it could be executed using traditional techniques without machine aided manufacturing methods. Much of this brief would have been applied to the process of the furniture design and construction at Chandigarh. The present lot appears to be a rarefied version of the two other examples shown within the period images of Jeaneret’s apartment and possibly an associate’s apartment in Chandigarh. In comparison the overall form of the present lot appears to be more dynamic, the scale is more refined and the tabletop has a bevelled edge. Overall the present lot has a superior build quality, which can be seen when demounted and displayed in its three component parts. Compared to Le Corbusier’s contractual biannual month long visits to Chandigarh, Jeanneret, Fry and Drew were the three from the quartet that worked as senior architects for the expected duration of three years. All four were members of the CIAM. The principal, I J S Bakshi of the Chandigarh College of Architecture writes in regards to Fry and Drew that ‘These were the pioneers who worked assiduously and painstakingly in the face of all adversit
Pierre Jeanneret Rare and important demountable coffee table, designed for Pierre Jeanneret's private apartment, Chandigarh circa 1953-1954 Teak. 41.6 x 79.1 x 79.5 cm (16 3/8 x 31 1/8 x 31 1/4 in.)
Provenance Private residence, Chandigarh, circa 1953-1954 Acquired from the above by Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew 63 Gloucester Place, London, 1954 Thence by descent to the present owner, granddaughter of Jane Drew Canterbury, 1996 Literature Beryl Platts, 'The Architect As Collector, The Modern Collection Of Maxwell Fry And Jane Drew’, Country Life, 29 September, 1966, illustrated p. 782, fig. 2 Eric Touchaleaume and Gerald Moreau, Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret The Indian Adventure: Design-Art-Architecture, Paris, 2010, pp. 268, 323, 588 Catalogue Essay The second-floor landing at 63 Gloucester Place was the location of the present lot after Edwin Maxwell Fry (1899-1987) and Dame Jane Beverly Drew (1911-1996) departed from the city in 1954. They both arrived at Chandigarh in 1951, although Jane arrived a little later due to her commitments for the Festival of Britain. The table remained part of the Fry’s conscientious and refined collection until it became part of Jane Drew’s estate and thence by descent to her granddaughter. Set within a Regency Terrace, 63 Gloucester Place was not only the Fry and Drew residence it was also the location of the firm Fry, Drew and Partners. The author Beryl Platts best describes the terrace in the following article after visiting Jane Drew at Gloucester Place as: ‘tall, dignified houses, whose successive owners have made them taller by adding a froth of gay attic storeys. High ceilings, wide landings and tall windows seem to set the pace for free-ranging futuristic ideas’ (Beryl Platts, 'The architect As Collector, The Modern Collection Of Maxwell Fray And Jane Drew’, Country Life, 29 September, 1966, p. 782). The intriguing title of this article ‘The Architect As Collector’ is the concept that it presents the architect as the modern collector and compared to the surfeit amount of contemporary articles that appear on today’s platforms, these are generally somewhat focused on anodyne collections and interiors, but the Fry’s deploy intellectual juxtapositions throughout their interior and for example they superimpose the present lot with a sculpture by the artist Gerald Gladstone It is most likely that the present lot can be considered the first example of Pierre Jeanneret’s furniture designed for Chandigarh to be acquired and contextualised as part of a collection specifically within an interior. The present lot applies many of the design principles and sensibilities of the work that Pierre Jeanneret did in collaboration with Charlotte Perriand when working on a series of furniture for L’Équipment de la Maison. It was an ambitious project that began in 1946, which included a comprehensive and essential range of furniture that could be easily built by hand and constructed. L’Équipment de la Maison was rigorous in its approach to produce robust furniture devoid of decoration and most importantly that it could be executed using traditional techniques without machine aided manufacturing methods. Much of this brief would have been applied to the process of the furniture design and construction at Chandigarh. The present lot appears to be a rarefied version of the two other examples shown within the period images of Jeaneret’s apartment and possibly an associate’s apartment in Chandigarh. In comparison the overall form of the present lot appears to be more dynamic, the scale is more refined and the tabletop has a bevelled edge. Overall the present lot has a superior build quality, which can be seen when demounted and displayed in its three component parts. Compared to Le Corbusier’s contractual biannual month long visits to Chandigarh, Jeanneret, Fry and Drew were the three from the quartet that worked as senior architects for the expected duration of three years. All four were members of the CIAM. The principal, I J S Bakshi of the Chandigarh College of Architecture writes in regards to Fry and Drew that ‘These were the pioneers who worked assiduously and painstakingly in the face of all adversit
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