Attesting to its exceptional stature, the work has been featured in seminal retrospectives of Gray’s work at the Centre Pompidou in 2013, and the Irish Museum of Modern Art in 2014, as well as exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The piece is one of very few screens to have remained in private hands and is endowed with impeccable provenance that includes the legendary collectors Jean-Henri Labourdette, Jean-Claude Brugnot, and Steven A. Greenberg.

Further highlights include an Important and Rare “Oiseaux” Low Table by Armand-Albert Rateau, one of the artist’s most emblematic and singular creations (estimate $1/1.5 million). Dating from 1924, the work showcases Rateau’s modern reinterpretation of classical and Baroque themes which instill in the present Table a timeless and universal artistic appeal, making it a masterpiece of animalier sculpture in and of itself. Over the course of his career, Rateau gave life to a myriad of animals in bronze and created a mythical “bestiary,” whose scope and variety foreshadow François-Xavier Lalanne’s functional animalier designs several decades later. Underscoring the work’s significance, only two other examples of this specific table model are known to exist and were included in the legendary interiors of famed couturier Jeanne Lanvin and the Duchess of Alba.

Works by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann are led by an exquisite Monumental Luminaire dating from 1928 (estimate $250/350,000). The Luminaire was designed by Ruhlmann and the Manufacture Nationale de Sèvres for the historic Île-de-France ocean liner – a beacon of Art Deco design and an ambassador for the decorative arts of France, with rooms commissioned by other leading decorators of that time. Though the original examples from the ship were destroyed, the present work is one of only two period Luminaires from the era to have survived. To this day, the only other documented example is located at the Hôtel Potocki in Paris, an Art Deco landmark renovated in 1925-1927 by Ruhlmann himself.

Once in the collection of celebrated Art Deco collector Félix Marcilhac, Gustave Miklos’s L’Homme et son Destin from 1929 is another highlight from the Evening Sale (estimate $350/550,000). One of his most complex sculptural works in bronze, the present sculpture is a unique work and cast, executed at the height of Miklos’s career. As formally harmonious as it is curiously enigmatic, L’Homme showcases the artist’s predilection for geometric and abstract elements. The sculpture reflects the artist’s growth towards the end of the 1920s and the accomplished synthesis of artistic references in his practice, which contribute to making L’Homme et son Destin one of his most eminent masterpieces.

Other highlights include a superlative array of vases by Jean Dunand that exemplify his masterful use of red and black lacquer as well as a selection of rare works by Jean Goulden. Illustrating the latter is a unique and Important Clock from 1928, a highly celebrated work and one of his most outstanding and large-scale achievements in the champlevé enamel technique (estimate $200/300,000). The clock embodies the timeless artistry that made Goulden’s work an emblematic symbol of the Jazz Age in France and overseas. It is all the more exceptional that only 190 objects by Goulden are known to exist, contributing to their rarity and the high demand of his prized objects among Art Deco collectors.

The approximately 150 works on offer in the Day sale showcase the encyclopedic spectrum of Dr. Kelly’s Collection with a particular focus on the artists that he regarded most highly, which include rare concentrations of works by Clément Rousseau, Émile Decœur, and Claudius Linossier, among others. In particular, the sale offers myriad examples of metal lighting by Maison Desny and Jean Boris Lacroix in a curated selection that embodies the diversity and superior quality of their respective production in the 1920s and 1930s. With diverse and high-quality works by superior makers and artists, the Day sale constitutes an unmissable opportunity for Art Deco enthusiasts worldwide.