If you think a few million dollars is too high a price for investing in contemporary art, there may be a cheaper alternative: furniture. Architects such as Zaha Hadid and David Adjaye are turning everyday items like tables, chairs and shelves into desirable objects made from marble, Corian, Perspex and Fiberglas. Wealthy collectors who might have become reluctant to buy a Damien Hirst or Andy Warhol work are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on design classics of the future, according to London dealers who specialize in limited-edition furniture. "There's a community that's trying to turn design products into hot art," Philippe Garner, international head of Christie's International's 20th Century Design Department, said in an interview. "It's a situation that raises a lot of questions." One dealer, Established & Sons in St. James's, London, is staging "Around the Corner," the first solo exhibition of furniture designed by Amanda Levete of the award-winning U.K. architects Future Systems. On the first night last week, four out of an edition of 10 hand-finished black marble "East" tables sold to international collectors for 135,000 pounds ($262,000) each, said Established's founder and Chief Executive Alasdhair Willis, who is married to fashion designer Stella McCartney. "Serious Return" "Compared with contemporary art, these are low out-of-pocket investments for my clients," Willis said in a telephone interview. "They see it as an opportunity to buy beautiful pieces that have a high level of function, but which can be sold for a serious return later." In April 2005, at the gallery's inaugural exhibition, Established & Sons sold a Hadid prototype "Aqua" table for 45,000 pounds, said Willis. Eight months later, the same piece came up for auction at Phillips de Pury in New York, where it fetched $300,000 with fees, according to the saleroom result tracker Artnet. "That Hadid table caught a moment," said Willis. "It showed big art collectors that contemporary design could be an important investment." Willis said he did not anticipate it would take long for the six remaining "East" tables at "Round the Corner" to find buyers. Yesterday, six sets of Levete's "South" corner shelves, made from Corian in an edition of 12, priced at 25,000 pounds each, had also sold. Five Fiberglas "North" console tables from the show, also from an edition of 12, had takers at 35,000 pounds each, said Willis. In October 2007, Levete's Corian sculpture "Prototile" sold for a record 108,000 pounds with fees at Phillips de Pury, London, said Artnet. Albion's Adjaye Adjaye is another internationally acclaimed U.K. architect who has begun to design limited-edition furniture. The London- based Albion Gallery is holding a show of four ``Monoforms'' by Adjaye at the Casa dell'Architettura, Rome. The geometric modular furniture is offered in a choice of Hassan green granite or solid walnut. The four stone designs are available in an edition of five, priced at 30,000 pounds each. The wooden versions come in an edition of 10 at 20,000 pounds. "So far we've sold between a third and a half of the entire edition," said Albion Gallery director Michael Hue-Williams."That's not bad for four months".The catalog for "Monoforms" had first been released by Albion at the Design Miami fair in December. Global Demand Hue-Williams said he was selling furniture to "exactly the same" people who buy contemporary art. "People who collect art need to put things into an environment that's consistent".The geographical spread of buyers was "absolutely global",said Hue- Williams. Adjaye's furniture has yet to appear at auction. According to Artnet, the current auction record for any work by a living designer remains the 750,000 pounds with fees paid at Christie's, London, in October 2007, for an aluminum "Lockheed" lounger by the Australian-born, London-based designer Marc Newson. The lounger was from an edition of 10, said Artnet. "I do get a bit nervous when designers get elevated like that",said Garner. "There can be a thin line between the hunger for excellent contemporary design and pure short-term investment". In June 2007 the New York dealers Sebastien + Barquet sold a prototype of the Newson Lockhead chair for $2.2 million to a Californian collector, said the gallery's assistant director, Paulina Leon in a telephone interview. The prototype chair, which Leon said had been exhibited by Sebastien + Barquet at the previous December's Art Basel Miami Beach fair, was acquired at Sotheby's, New York, in June 2006, for $970,000 with fees, according to Artnet.

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