Metal chest of drawers made by Apple designer Marc Newson in his student days sells for £1m at Paris auction 

  • The 'pod of drawers' by Australian Marc Newson, 53, went for almost £1m
  • The curvy cello-shaped piece is made from robust airplane aluminium 
  •  Newson's other designs include a one-man jet and a metal chaise longue

It certainly looks bulletproof, but does anyone really want a chest of drawers shaped like a cello and made from aluminium? 

If the million-pound auction that saw the sale of this early piece from Australian designer Marc Newson yesterday is anything to go by, then yes.

The futuristic 'pod of drawers' was sold to a mystery Asian buyer for a whopping 1.109 million euros (£911,000) - double the estimate - by auction house Artcurial in Paris.

53-year-old architect Newson, who has been working for Apple for the past decade, created the curvy bureau in his student days.

The futuristic pod of drawers is made from airplane aluminium and is actually inspired by an Art Deco piece from 1925

The futuristic pod of drawers is made from airplane aluminium and is actually inspired by an Art Deco piece from 1925

Newson picked up a gong for GQ Creative Icon of the Year at the London GQ Men Of The Year Awards in September 2015 

Newson picked up a gong for GQ Creative Icon of the Year at the London GQ Men Of The Year Awards in September 2015 

He made the shiny drawers, crafted from airplane aluminium, by hand in 1987 while he was at art school after his previous training as a jeweller.

This wasn't the last of his metallic designs, as he went on to create the Lockheed Lounge chair and a concept jet called the Kelvin 40, which was 8 metres long with an 8 metre wingspan.

The pod of drawers was inspired by French Art Deco designer Andre Groult’s famous body-shaped Chiffonnier Anthropomorphe, which had a similar cello shape but was made of wood.

Two of Newson’s pods, with their trademark curved lines, are already on display in major museums: one at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the other at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. 

Born in 1963 in Sydney, Newson graduated in 1984 from the Sydney college of Arts after studying jewellery and sculpture.

In 1986 he was awarded a grant from the Australian crafts council and continued his training at art school, where he built his pod of drawers.

And in a feat of design engineering, Newson (pictured in the cockpit) made his own concept jet, the Kelvin 40, which is 8 metres long with an 8 metre wingspan

And in a feat of design engineering, Newson (pictured in the cockpit) made his own concept jet, the Kelvin 40, which is 8 metres long with an 8 metre wingspan

In 1991, Newson set up a studio in Paris and started to create lighting, furniture, glassware and household objects for Italian manufacturers. 

Last year he was named Creative Icon of the Year at the GQ Men of the Year awards. 

He has said he was inspired to take up furniture design by the European decorative art magazines his Greek-born grandfather left lying around the house in Sydney. 

The pod was part of the 'Heavy Metal, 20 Design Masterpieces' collection auctioned off yesterday.

Newson's student piece alone earned a third of the full amount raked in from the auction, with the grand total for all items sold hitting 2.7 million euros.