Brass Neoclassical Coffee Table with Black Leather and Gilt Border Top, Maison Jansen, France, circa 1940

This refined neoclassical coffee table presents a rectangular polished brass frame supporting a top of black leather bordered in gilt — a material and chromatic combination of considerable elegance. The piece follows the Louis XVI vocabulary as interpreted through the modernist lens of the Jansen ateliers: the tapering legs, the restrained mouldings, and the precise proportions are hallmarks of the neoclassical idiom as practised by the greatest Parisian decorating houses of the 1930s. The black leather top, edged with a gilt border, introduces a note of high luxury that speaks of the finest French craftsmanship.

Maison Jansen, founded in 1880 on the Rue Royale in Paris, was without question the most celebrated interior decorating house in the world during the inter-war period. Working for royalty, heads of state, and the most distinguished private clients across three continents, Jansen developed a house style that synthesised the finest traditions of French decorative arts with a modernist clarity of composition. Low furniture in polished brass with leather tops was among the most characteristic productions of the house in the 1930s and 1940s, marrying the prestige of the metalwork tradition with the luxury of the finest French leather-work.

In excellent original condition, the brass retains its warm golden lustre and the black leather its original supple surface, the gilt border preserving its characteristic sheen. The generous dimensions — 92 × 48 cm in plan and 43 cm in height — make this a highly practical coffee table for a drawing room of any scale. A distinguished example of the Jansen production at the height of the house’s pre-war prestige.