On August 18 at Christie’s London, the sale “Interiors - Including 20th/201st Century Pictures” offered over 300 lots dedicated to paintings, furniture, collectibles, and decorative arts objects spanning the 18th to 21st centuries. With estimates starting at around £700 ($1,100), the house’s monthly interiors auction provides buyers with the opportunity to acquire works at every level of collecting. Compared to the house's blockbuster sales, the price points reflected in Christie's interiors auctions are more accessible for first time buyers or those wishing to add to a personal collection at little cost.Both measuring 41 ½ inches by 41 ½ inches, a modern pair of gilt decorated cast-iron mounted multiple convex glass mirrors led the sale when they soared past their £2,500 ($3,900) high estimate to land at £15,000 ($23,500). Representing the 20th century picture offerings, Spyros Vassiliou’s oil “Mykonos at Night,” painted in 1972 towards the end of the artist’s career, hit its low estimate when it sold for £10,000 ($16,000), and René Gruau’s 20th-century oil “A Portrait of Maggy Sarrange, three quarter length, seated, wearing a yellow dress, golden necklace and black shawl,” also realized £10,000 ($16,000) (est. £8,000-12,000; $12,500-19,000). Several pieces of furniture made the top lots sold: From the late 18th century, a North Italian three-drawer marquetry commode made out of rosewood, tulipwood, and olive more than doubled its £4,000 ($6,500) low estimate to realize £8,750 ($14,000); and a George III mahogany and brass-bound four-poster bed from the early 19th century, with reeded and foliate-clasped front posts on octagonal and square tapering legs with large wheels, sold for £7,500 ($12,000) (est. £1,200-1,800; $2-3,000).Out of the 319 lots offered, 244 managed to find buyers for a solid sell-through rate by lot of 86 percent, for a sales total of £532,563 ($832,000). The majority of lots sold for an affordable price below $1,000.
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