Large French Brass Coffee Table, circa 1970

At 130.5 cm long and 75.5 cm wide, this brass coffee table belongs to the category of the truly large: a piece whose scale is itself a statement, occupying the centre of a salon grouping with the authority of a piece of furniture that has been designed to be noticed. Brass coffee tables of this dimension were produced in France throughout the 1960s and 1970s by a range of ateliers and workshops — from the signed, limited-edition productions of houses like Broncz to the fine anonymous work of the Parisian furniture trade — and they remain among the most sought-after objects of the period.

Brass, with its warm golden tone, brings to a large coffee table surface a quality that no other material can match: it glows without glaring, it patinates over time into deeper, richer tones, and it reflects the shifting light of a room — daylight, lamplight, candlelight — in a way that makes it a living part of the interior rather than a static piece of furniture. In the 1970s, when French decorators were placing these tables at the centre of salons upholstered in deep velvets and natural materials, the effect was of accumulated warmth, a visual richness built from the complementary textures of metal, fabric, and wood.

At 40 cm tall, the table sits at the comfortable lower end of coffee table height, encouraging the spread of objects across its surface — books, trays, decorative pieces — without obscuring sightlines across the room. Its proportions make it the natural centrepiece for a large sofa grouping or a generous L-shaped arrangement.

In very good condition consistent with its age. A handsome and substantial piece of French brass furniture from the height of the 1970s decorative movement.