South African Design: Past and Present 

24 Jun 2026

• South African Design: Past and Present reveals the nature of the country’s design identity. 
• Interior designer Justin Van Breda has curated gallery scenes that take visitors on a visual journey. 
• Ceramics reveal the breadth of South African making traditions, from Rorke’s Drift and Kalahari Studio to Ardmore and Linn Ware. 
• The 19th-century Transvaal Imperial brass bushel recalls a unique chapter in South Africa’s political history. 

Strauss and Co is delighted to present South African Design: Past and Present, a timed-online auction running from 5 June to 24 June 2026. The sale brings together top-drawer local makers and designers covering ceramics, weaving and glass, sculpture and furniture.  

Alongside the June Interiors sale, this month’s special design focus has been brought to life by London interior designer, and Craft School South Africa founder, Justin van Breda. Selecting a key paint colour for each room and an anchor piece for every scheme, Justin has created a gallery experience built on visual connections rather than categories. “I wanted to maintain a good intersection between art and furniture, anchoring with major artworks and ensuring that the eye never stops journeying,” he explains. 

These visual stories remind us that South African design resists easy definition. It draws on social and historical influences, heritage craft practices, material traditions, resourcefulness, innovation and a profound sense of place. It’s a design culture rich in narrative and embracing of its multiplicity. 

Blending contemporary with historical or craft with design, Justin’s curation suggests that the strength of South African design lies in the conversations that occur between objects, histories and makers. For example, an 18^th century Cape display cabinet (Lot 512, estimate R25 000 – R30 000) looks at home alongside a Casamento hand-stitched ottoman (Lot 505, estimate R45 000 – R50000). Likewise, Mash T’s beaded Tutu 2.0 pendants (Lots 492 & 493, estimate R9 000- R11 000 each), a Frystark mid-century modern dining suite (Lot 498, estimate R22 000 – R26 000) and jewel-like David Reade glass vessels (Lots 56-65) make beautiful companions.  

The sale’s ceramics reveal the breadth of South African making traditions, from the indigenous narratives of a Kalahari Studio plate (Lot 404, estimate R3 000- R4 000) to the experimental forms of a Rorke’s Drift vessel (Lot 420, estimate R3 000 – R5 000). At the contemporary end of the spectrum, Lucie de Moyencourt’s joyful ceramic shells (Lot 54, estimate R5 000 – R30 000) demonstrate how local makers continue to reinterpret colour, form and pattern in distinctly personal ways. 

Both Liz Lacey’s glass free form bowl (Lot 466, estimate R4 000 – R6 000) and Rodney Band’s wild olive bowl (Lot 482, estimate R45 000 – R50 000) disclose the expressive potential of material honesty and sculptural form. Similarly, Penny Gumbi’s Zulu pot (Lot 479, estimate R6 000 – R8 000) nods to minimalism while drawing on objects rooted in Zulu pottery traditions.  

South African furniture design answers to functionality in varied forms, from the bold but lean aesthetic of a Tonic cabinet (Lot 495, estimate R15 000 – R20 000) to the vernacular identity of a Transvaal tambotie rusbank (Lot 514, estimate 20 000 – R22 000). The 19th-century Cape Riversdale cupboard (Lot 521, estimate R60 000 – R80 000), meanwhile, bears the inlaid block feet that are a hallmark of the region’s cabinetmaking tradition. 

The auction also explores South Africa’s continuing dialogue between craft and contemporary design. Woven, beaded and textile traditions have become a deep current within South African design, with makers drawing on inherited skills to produce objects that feel entirely fresh. The same can be seen in contemporary art, where woven textiles are becoming a rising trend within the auction and art fair scene. The result is a design culture in which the boundaries between art, craft and design remain fluid. 

Unlike many established European design traditions, South African design has developed through a convergence of indigenous knowledge, colonial influences, local materials and modern global perspectives. South African Design: Past and Present offers collectors and design professionals a window to acquire something that bears the unique imprint of the country’s makers.