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.
1926–1995
French designer who worked the industrial end of postwar modernism, turning bent plywood and thin steel into furniture and lighting made to be affordable.
Why they matter
Guariche came from a family of Paris goldsmiths, studied under René Gabriel at the Arts Décoratifs and graduated in 1949 into Marcel Gascoin's studio. In 1954 he founded the Atelier de Recherche Plastique with Michel Mortier and Joseph-André Motte, designing chiefly for Minvielle. From 1957 he was artistic director at the Belgian manufacturer Meurop.
He worked for manufacturers rather than galleries and that is the character of the work: bent plywood shells on splayed steel rod, counterweighted brass lamps for Disderot, modular Prefacto storage for Airborne. Nothing is precious and everything is resolved.
Prices have moved sharply on the lighting and the furniture is still reachable. Because it was industrially made, condition reads plainly: check the plywood for delamination at the edges and the steel for pitting, and accept honest wear in the lacquer.
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Key forms & materials
Forms
- Tonneau chair
- Prefacto storage
- G2 Equilibrium floor lamp
- Président desk
- Trelax armchair
- G10 armchair
Materials
- Bent plywood
- Tubular steel
- Brass
- Lacquered metal
What to look for
Marks, editions, patina and production partners — fact-checked for this designer.
- He worked through manufacturers, so the maker is the evidence: Steiner, Airborne, Disderot, Meurop and Les Huchers-Minvielle all used labels, and a surviving label beats a stylistic match.
- The Tonneau chair, also sold as the Amsterdam, was made by Steiner first in moulded plastic and aluminium and then in bent plywood, so construction dates the piece.
- Furniture from his Atelier de Recherche Plastique years is a joint credit with Michel Mortier and Joseph-André Motte and should be described that way.
- The CM190 chair is regularly catalogued under his name but is documented as a Pierre Paulin design for Thonet, so that one needs checking before it is listed.
- Unlabelled French plywood and rod chairs of the period are attributed to him more often than the production numbers can support.
Past Circa results
Search all Pierre Guariche results- $1,200
- $600
- $500
- $1,300
- $800
- $1,500
- $4,100
- $1,600
- $1,700
- $7,500
- $2,200
- $500
- $1,900
- $500
- $400
- $7,000
- $250
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