Neoclassical Brass and Glass Coffee Table by Raymond Subes, French Work, Circa 1940

This elegant low table features a base of worked brass in a neoclassical idiom, its graceful lines and architectural proportions converging beneath a thick slab of glass that serves as the tabletop. The brass framework, meticulously crafted, combines rectilinear and curved elements to produce a composition of great refinement, in which the warmth of the golden metal contrasts beautifully with the cool transparency of the glass. The overall form is at once monumental in conception and perfectly calibrated for domestic scale.

Raymond Subes (1893–1970) was one of the most celebrated French metalworkers of the twentieth century, whose career spanned over five decades of extraordinary creative output. Trained at the École Boulle, Subes worked in the atelier of Émile Robert before founding his own workshop, producing both monumental architectural metalwork — for the Palais de Chaillot, ocean liners, and grand hotels — and refined furniture pieces for private clients. His neoclassical sensibility, refined through decades of collaboration with the leading architects and decorators of the Art Deco and postwar periods, is evident in every detail of his work.

This coffee table would bring an exceptional level of artistic distinction to a living room, library, or reception space. Its golden brass base and glass top complement both period-furnished interiors and more pared-back contemporary environments. A rare opportunity to acquire a piece of furniture by one of France's foremost decorative metal artists — an object that is as much a work of art as it is a functional piece of furniture.