Large Two-Tier Lucite and Brass Coffee Table, French Work, France, circa 1970

This large two-tier coffee table represents a quintessential expression of French decorative arts in the early 1970s, when designers embraced transparent Lucite as a structural material capable of lending furniture an almost weightless presence. The table rests on four robust uprights of solid clear Lucite, whose transparency allows the eye to travel uninterrupted across the room while still conferring a sense of architectural solidity. Both tiers are framed in gilded brass with a flat, rectilinear profile, lending the piece the geometry of a miniature building in section.

The surfaces of both shelves are fitted with clear glass panels that sit flush within the brass surrounds, their reflectivity adding a luminous quality to the composition. The brass profiles are finished to a warm, slightly brushed tonality consistent with the finest French production of the period, contrasting beautifully with the cold clarity of the Lucite posts. Every junction between the uprights and the shelf-frames is executed with a precision that speaks to workshop-quality manufacture, without recourse to visible fasteners.

At 130 by 80 centimetres, the table commands a significant footprint, making it well-suited as the centrepiece of a large seating arrangement. Its low height of just 38.5 centimetres places it comfortably within easy reach of sofas and armchairs, while its generous surface area accommodates books, objects and decorative accessories in abundance. The transparency of the Lucite ensures that the table adds volume to a room without ever dominating it visually.

This piece belongs to an important current in post-war French interior design, when leading Parisian decorators sought to reconcile classical materials — brass, glass — with the new vocabulary of industrial plastics. The result is a furniture form that feels simultaneously modern and timeless, equally at home in a refined period interior and in a contemporary loft setting.