The week before last the super-cool Shukura by Hugo Franca was included as a recommendation in our monthly newsletter and it seems that Corfield Morris was not the only admirer of this coffee table! Last night at Sotheby's Fine 20th century Design sale it fetched a cool £67,250 against pre-sale estimates of £12-18,000.

This is an auction record for the Brazilian designer whose highest price realised at auction to date was for a 'Taja' settee which fetched $56,250 (£39,000) last June.

Amongst the contemporary designers, Ron Arad continued to realise good prices, fetching the two top spots for contemporary designers with £87,650 for 'Bloviod' and £79,250 for 'Italian Fish'. Overall however, the top price realised went to an Art Nouveau 'Nenuphars' table by Majorelle, second went to Ron Arad's Blovoid and Ron Arad held overall joint third with a large console by the Art Deco designer, Edgar Brandt.

As with Phillips de Pury's last auction, there seems to be a renewed interest in the older, blue-chip designers with a proven track record at auction as demonstrated by the top lot going to Majorelle and third going to Brandt. However, the Italian mid-century Modern designer Gio Ponti, performed well as did the Danish mid-century Modern designers Poul Henningsen and Poul Kjaerholm. 

Let's hope the auction houses are still in the mood to take a risk with promoting contemporary designers at auction next season too!