Phillips' Design sale in London on 4 November offered 131 lots of twentieth-century and contemporary design, and the strongest bidding gathered around ceramics. The top lot was Magdalene Odundo's Untitled vessel, which sold for £722,400 against an estimate of £120,000 to £180,000, roughly four times its high estimate.

Lucie Rie supplied the sale's other headline. A footed bowl by the Austrian-born potter, estimated at £50,000 to £70,000, reached £322,500, while two further Rie bowls also sold, one for £58,050 and another for £16,770. The results underline how firmly collectors now chase studio ceramics alongside furniture and lighting.

Furniture and sculpture kept pace. Diego Giacometti's Berceau low table, the first version of the design, sold for £387,000 against a £200,000 to £300,000 estimate, and Francois-Xavier Lalanne's Agneau, from the Nouveaux Moutons series, made £361,200 on a £220,000 to £280,000 estimate. A pair of Persane wall lights by Jean Royere reached £126,420, more than three times their £30,000 to £40,000 high estimate.

Other lots that cleared their estimates by wide margins included Umberto Bellotto's unique vase at £122,550, Gabriella Crespi's Puzzle table at £105,780, and a Soleil torsade mirror by Line Vautrin at £95,460. A pair of table lamps by Edgar Brandt reached £41,280 against a £5,000 to £7,000 estimate, and a mirror by Josef Hoffmann made £24,510, double its high estimate. Phillips also published an essay on Odundo's practice alongside the sale, written by Isabella Smith, author of a 2022 book on Lucie Rie. The pattern across the afternoon was consistent: sculptural and hand-made pieces, from Italian glass to French metalwork, drew the deepest competition, while several lots still sold within or just above their published ranges.