“I think the results at all the houses were solid and respectable, but the demand felt more tempered than in the last two sale seasons, and there were not as many breakout prices as one has come to expect in a December season,” said Jodi Pollack, head of the 20th-century design department at Sotheby’s. “Collectors are increasingly discerning when it comes to quality and pricing.”The majority of buyers this season were North American, but all of the houses reported bidding from European, Asian, and Middle Eastern sources as well.

What are they buying? Almost anything French. Standbys Charlotte Perriand, Jean Prouvé, and their cohorts continue to sell, but the biggest numbers were in Art Deco, the only category with lots surpassing $1 million—though there were only two of those this time around, both at Christie’s. Tiffany is stable, though possibly leveling off a bit; Arts & Crafts is solid; Giacometti is a good bet; experts noted some “fatigue” in the Nakashima market, possibly indicating a leveling-off after years of being a hot brand; and demand for both Italian and Scandinavian works is steady when the offerings are good. Cutting-edge design fresh out of the studio was less visible this time around, as auction houses and buyers seemed more interested in merchandise with proven track records.

Phillips de Pury & Company launched the season with two sales, bringing in more than $5.5 million. The late afternoon Design Masters sale on December 11 reached back to the 19th century for works by Edward William Godwin and Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but offerings were as recent as an elegantly sculptural 2006 Hiroshi Suzuki hammered-silver vase. In his last appearance for the house, Simon de Pury, who 10 days later announced his departure, kept up his usual charming patter but failed to draw much animation from the audience. Bidding was light, with a number of pieces selling just at or slightly below estimates. The top lot was a Tiffany Wisteria lamp, circa 1905, selling for $506,500, just above the $500,000-to $700,000 estimate, a solid though not outstanding price (another example sold at Bonhams in June 2011 for $792,400). The circa-1867 Godwin sideboard, in the designer’s typical Japanese-inspired form, sans the usual slim legs, had just one bidder, who took it home for $482,500, below the $500,000-to-$600,000 estimate. According to Alex Heminway, director of the design department, it nonetheless represented “a healthy margin” over the previous auction price for a piece by Godwin: £91,250 ($150,000), achieved at Christie’s in May of last year for a circa-1870 Gothic Revival oak bookcase. While prices for private sales have approached $500,000, Heminway notes, auction results have been far more modest.

Later works fared better. A Jean Royère coffee table, circa 1948 (est. $30–40,000), brought $74,500, and a circa-1960 set of three Serge Mouille ceiling lights drew lively interest from several bidders, going for $146,500, well above its $60,000-to-$80,000 estimate. Mouille pieces, and lighting in general, seem to be a much-sought-after category, particularly among interior designers. The high point of the sale in terms of bidding activity came when a Magdalene Odundo vase made of carbonized terra-cotta, a sensuous organic form made in 2000, soared to $105,700 (est. $40–60,000). Lots by Line Vautrin and Axel Salto also did well, evidencing strong demand for good accessory pieces. Apart from these, many lots went for prices near the estimate, a number selling to a single commission bid. Passed lots included a 1997 Ron Arad rocking chaise (est. $80,000–120,000).

At Phillips’s Design sale the next morning, a Francois-Xavier Lalanne epoxy-and-bronze sheep, 1993, estimated at $80,000 to $100,000, brought $194,500. These quirky animals—also found in both epoxy and wool versions—remain in high demand, though nothing is likely to approach the $7.5 million a flock of 10 similar ones garnered at Christie’s in December 2011 (est. $600–900,000). Less subject to fickle fashion, a circa-1961 Pierre Jeanneret bookcase sold at the midpoint of its $100,000-to-$120,000 estimate to bring $110,500, and several buyers bid on an Aldo Chale bronze-and painted-metal coffee table from 1970, pushing the price to $64,900, well over its $25,000-to-$35,000 estimate. A Nakashima Conoid bench, one of the designer’s classic pieces, passed (though a similar one sold at Sotheby’s a few days later).

In Chicago, sales at Wright began December 13 with a single-owner collection of Italian design, keyed to works by Gio Ponti and his compatriots collected by scholar and author Loris Manna. Leading the sale was a rare matching pair of 1954 chandeliers by Fontana Arte offered as separate lots, each estimated at $20,000 to $30,000 and bought by the same bidder, but at widely different prices. “The winning bidder had a place to use them,” said founder and president Richard Wright after one sold for $42,500 and the other for $91,300. Another standout was a multicolor Venini chandelier, 1946, a flamboyant explosion of color and craftsmanship from Gio Ponti’s own residence, that sold for $68,500 (est. $50–70,000), and a Max Ingrand floor lamp, 1955, that more than doubled its low $30,000 estimate to sell for $67,300.

Other fixtures, too, brought excellent results. Happy with the outcome, Wright commented, “The freshness of the material, the correctness of the pieces, and good provenance all came together.”

Wright’s Important Design sale the same day drew advance publicity for a rare game table set byHollywood designer Billy Haines: table, chairs, lamp, and game pieces in leather, parchment, and other luxury materials, circa 1939. It brought $92,500, a bit under the $100,000-to-$150,000 estimate, and was slightly outdone by a circa-1958 Le Corbusier desk with the same estimate, from one of the architect’s most famous project sites—the city of Chandigarh, India—which brought $98,500. An 18-inch-tall Salto vase, 1947, estimated at $90,000 to $120,000, sold for $98,500. Prices for this Danish craftsman’s distinctive pieces, with their irregular surfaces suggesting budding or sprouting plants, are escalating steadily, as are ceramics as a category.

Christie’s virtually wiped out the competition in three days of selling, pulling ahead from the start with a two-session single-owner sale on December 12 and 13: the Art Deco collection of the late Steven A. Greenberg, considered the most important American collection of its kind, and probably the last such grouping to come on the market. Though not quite equaling the auction house’s blockbuster sale of the Yves St. Laurent and Pierre Bergé collection in Paris in 2009, the Greenberg holdings drew the largest audience and generated the only real excitement of the week, bringing in more than $17 million.

Top price was earned by an incised lacquered screen, circa 1922, by Eileen Gray, which sold for $1,874,500 (est. $1.5–2.5 million) to Stephen Kelly, an ophthalmologist and longtime collector who recently opened a gallery on New York’s Upper East Side. But the most heated competition was for works by Jean Dunand and Jean Dupas. A Dupas painting, Allegorie du Tissu, a circa-1937 study for a mosaic at the Paris Exposition of the same year, brought $1,650,500, crushing the presale estimate of$150,000 to $250,000 and setting a world auction record for the artist. Two persistent bidders pushed the price of a 20-inch-tall Dunand vase, 1925, in black lacquered metal with a striking geometric pattern in silvery eggshell inlay, to $902,500 (est. $150–200,000). Three more works by Dunand, two by Dupas, and lighting designs by Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann and Edgar Brandt rounded out the top 10. The expected star lot, a supersize half-round black lacquer desk designed by Ruhlmann in 1929 and made in 1932, failed to sell, a fact attributable possibly to the lofty estimate of $2 million to $3 million, or to the less-than-pristine finish. A similar desk brought €2.3 million ($3.2 million) at the Gourdon sale at Christie’s Paris in 2011. Carina Villinger, head of 20th-century decorative arts for Christie’s, noted, “with a piece that rare, you can’t just go out and find another in better condition.” Art adviser Ben Walker commented, “You can’t really use it…. It’s an iconic piece, but what can you do with it?” In general, accessories and highly decorative pieces drew more interest than classic furniture. “Having a whacking great Art Deco piece in the middle of a room is a bit stale,” Walker observed. “People are looking for more dynamic objects and accent pieces.” Indeed, about 20 lots of assorted accessory pieces, including boxes and cigarette cases, went to a single buyer in quick succession.

The Important 20th-Century sale at Christie’s on December 14, with Tiffany bundled in, starred two Alberto Giacometti lots: a console and bas-relief from 1939 that brought $842,500 (est. $800,000–1.2 million) and a stunning pair of alabaster table lamps, 1939, that shot up to $530,500, many multiples of the $40,000-to-$60,000 estimate. “We knew they’d do well, but who would have thought they would take off like that?” said a pleased Villinger. Two other Giacometti lots, both table lamps, made the top 10 of the event, along with Ruhlmann pieces and the cover lot, a Frank Lloyd Wright window—but nothing else had such explosive results.

Sotheby’s held a three-catalogue event on December 15, and though the Saturday scheduling failed to draw much attendance, phone bidding brought solid results—close to $13 million—with Pollack reporting bids from Europe, Asia, South America, and the Middle East, as well as from U.S.–based museums and private foundations. French design again took over the top lots: Two bidders fought it out for a 10 footlong Paul Dupré-Lafon console table, circa 1935, a massive but elegant work in leather, limed oak, and brass, pushing the price to $752,500 (est. $500–600,000). More Lalanne sheep—a pair of woolly models circa 1967, one a headless ottoman—brought $542,500 (est. $300–500,000). In November Sotheby’s Paris sold a full flock of 12 of the figures for €1,744,750 ($2.3 million), but as consultant Greg Kuharic, a longtime observer of the auction scene and former Sotheby’s specialist, commented, “The Lalanne moment will come and go—the market is always looking for the next hot thing.”

The third standout at Sotheby’s was a small version of Demetre Chiparus’s Les Girls sculpture, circa 1928, which sold for $434,500 (est. $300–500,000). The house had sold one of the less rare 20-inch versions in the November Paris sale for €552,750 ($717,500). Arts & Crafts objects did well, with a Charles Rohlfs 1901 wood wall shelf, a circa-1900 Teco vase, and a Harvey Ellis music cabinet, circa 1903, all going for multiples of their estimates. There were surprises too: A sleek, lifelike ivory marble, Chat Assis, circa 1926, by Edouard Marcel Sandoz, estimated at $80,000 to $120,000, purred to a robust $278,500, despite a repaired ear, and one of the most recent offerings, an Ayala Serfaty wall light from 2011, shone at $104,500 (est. $40–60,000). Several lots of Lalanne furniture from the Lila Acheson Wallace Garden, which had made their auction debut in December 2005, were recycled profitably: Side chairs that had originally brought $96,000 for a lot of four sold in two pairs that each brought $68,500.

The Tiffany offerings from Sotheby’s came with two catalogues, one for the single-owner Geyer Family sale, with the top lot a circa-1905 Peony table lamp that went for $746,500 (est. $800,000–1.2 million); and Important Tiffany, starring a strikingly colored Trumpet Creeper table lamp, circa 1902, that came aglow at $914,500 (est. $400–600,000). The moderation in bidding might be attributable in part to the lackluster results of a November Tiffany sale at Michaan’s Auctions in Alameda, California, where the much-anticipated offering from the collection of Japan’s Garden Museum brought just a $4.3 million hammer total, compared with expectations of $7.5 million.

Kuharic commented that the sale “put a damper on the market. You’re down to just a few Tiffany dealers, where there used to be a lot more. I don’t see a lot of new, young collectors coming in. It’s a changing taste, but it’s still an important segment of the 20th-century market… I think there will be more interest down the road.”