PUBLIC FURNITURE BY PIERRE JEANNERET, CHIEF ARCHITECT OF CHANDIGARH CITY, INDIA, TO SELL AT BONHAMS
“ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT AND EXTRAORDINARY PLANNED CITIES OF THE 20TH CENTURY” – ROWAN MOORE, BONHAMS MAGAZINE
A collection of important furniture designed by the respected Swiss architect and designer Pierre Jeanneret (1896-1967), second cousin of internationally renowned architect Le Corbusier, for government and public buildings in the city of Chandigarh, India is to be sold at Bonhams, New Bond Street as part of its Post-War and Contemporary Art and Design sale on 22 September 2010.
In 1951, Le Corbusier was asked to plan the new city of Chandigarh. The partition of British India into the two nations of India and Pakistan in 1947 had left the state of Punjab in need of a capital to replace Lahore, which had become part of Pakistan during the partition. India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru decided to construct a city from scratch, in part to prove that the newly independent country could build a modern city. Nehru was vocal in his support of the project, proclaiming Chandigarh as “unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future”.
Le Corbusier made it a condition of his appointment that his cousin Pierre Jeanneret could be involved, having worked with him on and off for four decades. The project was to be the most substantial work of Jeanneret’s life, while for Le Corbusier it was an opportunity to put his ideas on city planning into practice, which had been thwarted elsewhere (in Paris, Algiers and Bogota).
As Rowan Moore comments in his article in the summer issue of Bonhams magazine: “The two cousins liked to design everything from the overall plan to the individual pieces of furniture...the architects’ involvement ran from the placement of buildings and districts, to the tapestries Le Corbusier designed for the Law Courts...”.
Jeanneret designed much of the furniture for the official buildings, including several items on offer in this sale. Highlights are an Indian rosewood and leather desk and teak and cane chair from the Administrative Buildings, Chandigarh (estimate £4,000 – 6,000); a Magistrates chair (estimate £3,000 – 5,000); three ‘Senate’ chairs from the Legislative Assembly (estimate £7,000 – 10,000); a set of six library chairs (estimate £5,000 – 7,000); and a pair of easy chairs from Punjab University (estimate £4,000 – 6,000).
While Le Corbusier left Chandigarh before the project’s end, Jeanneret stayed after construction was completed advising the government in his capacity as Chief Architect of the City until 1965. On his death in 1967, his ashes were scattered, in accordance with his will, in Chandigarh’s central lake.
Bonhams
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further five throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Carmel, New York and Boston in the USA; Toronto, Canada; and France, Monaco, Australia, Hong Kong and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas. By the end of 2009, Bonhams had become UK market leaders in ten key specialist collecting areas.For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go to www.bonhams.com
