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Louis-XV-style walnut-and-kingswood bureau plat -
Danish leather-and-chrome rocking chair -
French tulipwood, ormolu and marquetry card table -
Louis-XV-style white-and-silver gilt bureau plat -
Spode Chinese Rose dinner service -
Bronze mounted bracket clock -
Tranekaer Danish Iris armchairs (set of four) -
Louis-XV-style black-and-white harlequin commode -
1950s arc lamp -
Italian Tizianesca ceramic figure of a Native American woman -
Georg Jensen candle holder -
Schumann crystal sculpture lamp base -
Louis-XV-style canapé -
Multicoloured pedestal -
Louis-XV-style tulipwood-and-ormolu bureau plat
WORDS & PHOTOS Malibongwe Tyilo
If you feel like embracing your inner Liberace by adding a bit of razzle-dazzle to your home, you’re in luck. On Wednesday 27 November, Provenance Auction House in Cape Town is hosting the Liberace Rock auction. Our ed-at-large Malibongwe Tyilo got a little giddy with his camera, snapping his favs.
Forget the rappers the pimps and the Kardashians, Liberace was the original camp-tastic king of bling. Think of the famed gold-plated swan-neck faucets in his bathroom, the many gold-plated photo frames or take a peek inside his famous Las Vegas mansion, which was but one of his many homes.
Celebrating all things Liberace, Provenance is the perfect spot for this kind of auction. Since they opened shop two years ago, in an art deco building in Cape Town’s museum district, they’ve become well known for their themed auctions. Previous themes have included titles such as La Belle Epoc, Heritage and Salvage, and Madame Butterfly. Aside from gold gilded items, they’ve been known to trade in Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, vintage Louis Vuitton trunks and, recently, a 1958 Mercedes 190SL that went for just over a million Randelas!
The pieces that will make up Wednesday’s auction are certainly not for the tame-I-just-want-to-blend-in kind of homeowner. No, these grandiose furniture items state their case unapologetically and refuse to pander to the sometimes tragically trendy clinical minimal look. Go ahead, live dangerously, add that gloriously fabulous risqué statement piece, preferably with a touch of bling.
Like Liberace once said: “I didn’t get dressed like this to go unnoticed.” Why should your home go unnoticed?
But if you just want to look, before you put your money where your mouth is at the 10:30am auction on Wednesday 27 November, pop-in for a walkabout on Monday 25 or Tuesday 26 November.
Provenance Auction, 8 Vrede Street, Gardens, Cape Town, 021 461 8009, www.provenanceart.co.za
