Rectangular Brass Coffee Table with Black Lacquered Glass Top, in the Style of Maison Jansen, Circa 1940

A coffee table of architectural simplicity and material elegance, presenting a rectangular form in polished brass with a top inset in deep black lacquered glass. The understated refinement of the piece lies in the perfect relationship between its horizontal surface and its structural brass elements — legs of classical profile, fine rails, and precisely joined angles — all executed with the meticulous attention to proportion and finish that characterises the best Parisian brasswork of the interwar and early postwar decades. The profound black of the lacquered glass, simultaneously opaque and reflective, gives the table an air of quiet, assured luxury.

This table belongs to the distinguished aesthetic tradition of Maison Jansen, the legendary Parisian decorating house that, under the direction of Stéphane Boudin from the 1930s to the 1960s, set the standard for luxury interior decoration across two continents. The combination of polished brass structure and black lacquered glass was among Jansen's most celebrated and widely emulated formal solutions — a synthesis achieving a perfect balance between the warmth of gold-toned metal and the cool graphic modernism of the lacquered surface. Many of the great decorating workshops of mid-twentieth-century Paris produced pieces in this manner, testament to the pervasive influence of the Jansen aesthetic.

A table of this quality and lineage occupies a privileged place in the hierarchy of mid-century French decorative arts. Its timeless formal vocabulary — classical yet modern, luxurious yet restrained — makes it a natural centrepiece for any stylish interior, from the most formally composed salon to the most carefully conceived contemporary setting. An essential piece for the collector and decorator seeking the authentic spirit of mid-century Parisian elegance.