The Circa EditThe Circa Edit: 10 Lots for a Los Angeles House
Our specialists pick ten lots from the current sale against a brief every designer in this city recognises: hard light, open plan, doors that stay open.
1900–1984
French decorator who wrapped brass and glass structures in saddle-stitched leather, giving modernism a hand and a texture it had not had.
Why they matter
Adnet trained at the Beaux-Arts and ran the Compagnie des Arts Français from 1928 to 1960, a house whose contributors included Charlotte Perriand and Georges Jouve. He fitted out the presidential apartments at the Élysée and a meeting room at UNESCO, and directed the Arts Décoratifs school from 1959.
The work everyone recognises is from the 1950s: coffee tables, mirrors, coat racks, desk objects and armchairs built in brass or iron and then sheathed in leather with visible saddle stitching, made in association with Hermès. The stitching is structural and decorative at once, and it is what separates his furniture from the tubular steel that preceded it.
Leather is the condition question. Original hide dries, darkens and cracks at the folds, and buyers generally prefer that to a rewrap, since a relined piece loses the stitch line that carries the attribution.
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Key forms & materials
Forms
- Stitched leather coffee table
- Leather-wrapped mirror
- Iron and leather armchair
- Coat rack
- Bar stool
- Desk set
Materials
- Saddle-stitched leather
- Brass
- Wrought iron
- Glass
What to look for
Marks, editions, patina and production partners — fact-checked for this designer.
- Pieces made under his direction at the Compagnie des Arts Français can carry a CAF stamp and sometimes a number beneath the base, though many genuine examples have lost it.
- The stitching is the tell: original saddle stitch is even, sits slightly proud of the leather, and runs continuously around a corner rather than stopping and restarting.
- The Hermès association covers leatherwork of the 1950s and does not mean a piece is marked Hermès; listings implying an Hermès signature are overreaching.
- A whole genre of French stitched-leather furniture followed him and unsigned examples are routinely sold as Adnet or in the manner of Adnet.
- Rewrapped leather is a restoration rather than a fault, but it should be disclosed and it does affect price.
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