Art Déco Bronze Coffee Table with Black Portor Marble Top, in the Style of Maison Jansen, France, circa 1940

A rectangular coffee table of Art Déco character in patinated bronze, its substantial top in black Portor marble — an Italian stone prized since antiquity for its deep black ground traversed by bold veins of burnished gold — set within a bronze frame of classical profile. The base, composed of four bronze legs likely joined by a lower shelf, demonstrates the assured craft vocabulary typical of the finest French metalwork of the inter-war period. The pairing of dark marble and warm bronze produces the rich chromatic gravity that was the signature of Jansen’s most imposing table designs.

Black Portor marble, quarried at Porto Venere on the Ligurian coast of Italy, was among the most prestigious materials employed in French luxury furniture and architectural interiors of the early twentieth century. Its dramatic colouration — jet black shot through with irregular veins of gold and white — made it a material of choice for decorators seeking maximum visual impact. The attribution of this table to the manner of Maison Jansen reflects the celebrated Parisian house’s well-documented predilection for the most luxurious natural stones, which it combined with bronze, gilt metal and lacquer in furniture of exceptional ambition destined for the world’s grandest interiors.

In good condition consistent with age, the marble top intact and retaining its original polished surface; the bronze presenting a fine dark patina developed over eight decades. A table of undeniable decorative authority, suited to a formal drawing room, a library, or any interior in which materials of genuine quality and provenance are valued.