A red "cannonball" pulley system is among the distinctive features of a 1950s beach house by American architect Paul Rudolph that will be auctioned off next week by Sotheby's.
The Walker Guest House is a highlight of a design auction held twice yearly by Sotheby's, which is headquartered in New York. During the Important Design auction on 12 December, the guest house is expected to sell for $700,000 to $1 million (£541,257 to £773,225).
The 576-square-foot (53-square-metre) house was designed by the late architect Paul Rudolph, who is renowned for his mid-century modern designs and, later, his Brutalist buildings.

Rudolph was also a key figure in the Sarasota School of Architecture ? a style of post-war, modern architecture that emerged along Florida's Central West Coast. The small, white cottage was created in 1952 for Walter Willard Walker, a Minnesota doctor and businessman who desired a beach cottage for his family's property on Sanibel Island. The island is located just off Florida's western coast, in the Gulf of Mexico.
According to Sotheby's, the commission marked the architect's first solo project after he split from architect Ralph Twitchell, whom he began working with in the early 1940s.

Jodi Pollack, who co-leads Sotheby's 20th-century design department, described the small dwelling as "one of the most important surviving examples of modern American architecture, as well as one of the greatest creations of Paul Rudolph's early career".
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