Large Chrome and Brass Coffee Table with Smoked Glass Tops, Attributed to Willy Rizzo, Circa 1970

This large and commanding coffee table — constructed in chrome-plated steel and brass with smoked glass tops — is a quintessential example of the luxurious 1970s aesthetic that made the work of Willy Rizzo so sought-after. The combination of polished chrome, warm brass accents, and the mysterious depth of smoked glass creates a visual effect of both glamour and material richness. The table's scale is generous and confident, reflecting the bold decorating sensibility of the early 1970s, when furniture was designed to command attention as much as to serve a function.

Willy Rizzo (1928–2013) began his career as one of the most celebrated fashion photographers of the postwar era, working for Paris Match, Jours de France and the world's leading glossy magazines, photographing icons from Marilyn Monroe to Pablo Picasso. In the late 1960s, he turned his distinctive aesthetic sensibility to furniture design, creating a body of work that applied the glamour and perfection of fashion photography to functional objects. His chrome and brass furniture — tables, bars, storage units — became emblematic of the opulent international style of the 1970s, found in the most fashionable apartments and villas of Paris, Marbella, and New York. Today his furniture is among the most collected of its period.

In a contemporary interior, this coffee table would serve as an anchor of confident style. Its reflective surfaces play brilliantly with natural and artificial light, and the smoked glass tops add depth and visual intrigue. Whether placed in a modernist living room, a collector's loft, or a sleekly decorated salon, it brings the unmistakable energy of the 1970s golden age of design. Paired with period seating — a Florence Knoll sofa, a Pierre Paulin chair — or combined with contemporary furnishings, it asserts itself with full authority.