Auctions: Two sales of designer furniture and decorative arts

Designer furniture from throughout the 20th century and related decorative arts will be featured at sales this weekend and next. Another sale next week will offer lesser known treasures of the 1900s.

The first designer furniture event will take place on Saturday when Kamelot Auctions will offer more than 700 lots of furniture, lighting, statuary, Asian art, and glassware, notably two rare pieces of Lalique, at a sale beginning at 10 a.m. at its gallery in the office complex at 4700 Wissahickon Ave. Online bidding and an auction catalog with presale price estimates are available at www.kamelotauctions.com.

The Lalique pieces are both opalescent glass vases just over 9 inches high, depicting frenzied Bacchantes. One has a presale estimate of $6,000 to $9,000; the other, bought in France directly from Lalique by the consignor's mother, has a presale estimate of $8,000 to $12,000.

Otherwise, the sale is dominated by furniture. Most is midcentury American, including Jansen and half a dozen pieces attributed to the late French designer Charlotte Perriand with presale estimates in the three- to low-four-figure range.

The auction also offers playful pieces: two identical benches on scissor legs with goat-hair-upholstered seats (each $800 to $1,200), and a coffee table made from a segment of what the catalog calls a sculling crew shell, but which appears to be from a four- or eight-oared sweep ($400 to $600).

Preview: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday. For further information call 215-438-6990.

Two-day sale at Rago. The second designer furniture event will take place next weekend in Lambertville, where the Rago Arts and Auction Center will conduct a two-day, three-session sale, beginning at 11 a.m. Feb. 25 with more than 575 lots of early 20th- (plus a few late-19th-) century design, followed by a second session offering 80 lots of art pottery. A third session beginning at 11 a.m. Feb. 26, will offer modern furniture and design.

Five-figure prices will abound throughout, according to the online catalog accessible at www.ragoarts.com, beginning with the first lot in the opening session: a 1920s massive wrought-iron Samuel Yellin candelabrum with a presale estimate of $18,000 to $24,000. It will be followed by eight more Yellins, at least three of which should bring more than $10,000.