Neoclassical Brass Coffee Table with Antique Mirror Top by Maison Jansen, French Work, circa 1940

Few combinations in the decorative arts carry quite the atmospheric charge of brass and antique mirror — that pairing of warm, golden metal with the mysterious, foxed surface of aged glass that reflects the world back to itself in a slightly shifted, more poetic register. This coffee table by Maison Jansen exploits that combination with the assured mastery that characterised the house's finest productions of the 1940s. The neoclassical brass structure — refined tapering legs, classical proportions, the warm glow of well-worked metal — supports a top in faux-antique mirror whose surface, with its characteristic silvery patina and subtle imperfections, transforms every reflection into something more evocative than a simple mirror could produce: a vision of the room seen through time.

The use of antique mirror — whether genuine or skilfully aged — was a signature of Stéphane Boudin's approach at Maison Jansen. Where other designers might have opted for clear glass or marble, Boudin consistently reached for surfaces that possessed depth and mystery: lacquer, shagreen, antique mirror. He understood that an interior should not merely be functional and beautiful in the conventional sense, but should create an atmosphere — a sense of intimacy with history, of inhabiting a space that has been beloved before. The antique mirror top achieves precisely this effect: it gives the table a quality of romantic depth that no other material could provide.

In a fine state of conservation, with the brass displaying a beautiful aged warmth and the mirror surface perfectly preserved in its characteristically veiled antique quality, this coffee table represents Maison Jansen at its most seductive and most quintessentially Parisian. An heirloom piece of the highest distinction.