VENDREDI 12 DÉCEMBRE 2025 
This Week in La Gazette Drouot : Ben Swildens for Max Ingrand, a rare sculpture-desk at the forefront of 1960s design
I conic for its avant-garde lines and mirror effect, a desk by this designer, made in just three examples for Peugeot's Paris headquarters, arrives at auction.
By Anne Doridou-Heim
Read the full version of Ben Swildens for Max Ingrand, a rare sculpture-desk at the forefront of 1960s design in La Gazette Drouot
A straight plane that suddenly rolls up, then unrolls and rolls up again... A metal shell that turns in on itself and curls up... A single piece of polished stainless steel for a mirror effect that blurs the lines a little more... A clever trapdoor uncovers five small compartments, and a plate on the reverse side of the tray allows for the integration of a telephone - a little utility in this raw world! But what is the object, or rather the piece of furniture, that moves forward masked in this way? A desk and a chair, forever linked by the steel that created them.
More explanation is in order, and above all, a little backtracking. We're at the very beginning of the 1960s, the period that saw the birth of floral and psychedelic motifs, pop colors, whimsical shapes and the use of new materials. First clue. Dutchman Ben Swildens was a young citizen of the world who spent his childhood traveling with his architect father. He studied at the École supérieure des Arts décoratifs in Paris, graduating in 1961 and winning a competition for Saint-Gobain that same year.
It was here that he met Max Ingrand, who had been called in earlier to design the interior of the company's Neuilly headquarters. The French master glassmaker - already one of the leading names in European lighting and artistic director of Italian publisher Fontana Arte since 1954 - called on our young designer to assist him in the design of the French Pavilion at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.
Read the full version of Ben Swildens for Max Ingrand, a rare sculpture-desk at the forefront of 1960s design in La Gazette Drouot
A straight plane that suddenly rolls up, then unrolls and rolls up again... A metal shell that turns in on itself and curls up... A single piece of polished stainless steel for a mirror effect that blurs the lines a little more... A clever trapdoor uncovers five small compartments, and a plate on the reverse side of the tray allows for the integration of a telephone - a little utility in this raw world! But what is the object, or rather the piece of furniture, that moves forward masked in this way? A desk and a chair, forever linked by the steel that created them.
More explanation is in order, and above all, a little backtracking. We're at the very beginning of the 1960s, the period that saw the birth of floral and psychedelic motifs, pop colors, whimsical shapes and the use of new materials. First clue. Dutchman Ben Swildens was a young citizen of the world who spent his childhood traveling with his architect father. He studied at the École supérieure des Arts décoratifs in Paris, graduating in 1961 and winning a competition for Saint-Gobain that same year.
It was here that he met Max Ingrand, who had been called in earlier to design the interior of the company's Neuilly headquarters. The French master glassmaker - already one of the leading names in European lighting and artistic director of Italian publisher Fontana Arte since 1954 - called on our young designer to assist him in the design of the French Pavilion at the 1962 Seattle World's Fair.
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