Art Déco Brass Coffee Table with Black Lacquered Glass Top, Maison Jansen, France, circa 1940

A rectangular coffee table of Art Déco character by Maison Jansen, its top in black lacquered glass set within a frame of polished brass, the whole resting on four brass legs joined by stretchers of refined classical profile. The combination of black lacquered glass and warm brass produces a dramatic chromatic contrast — the deep opacity of the lacquer set against the luminous warmth of the metal — characteristic of the most assured Jansen designs of the 1930s and 1940s. The rectangular form, with its strict proportional discipline and linear clarity, reflects the Art Déco aesthetic at its most urbane.

Maison Jansen, the legendary Paris-based decorating firm founded in 1880, became in the inter-war decades the pre-eminent purveyor of luxury furniture to international royalty, heads of state, and the world’s most sophisticated collectors. The house’s Art Déco production of the 1930s was characterised by a masterful command of materials — black lacquer, polished brass, exotic marbles, and fine metalwork — deployed in furniture of exact proportional discipline and consummate craft. Coffee tables combining black lacquered surfaces with brass frameworks were among the most refined products of this production, equally at home in the grandest Parisian hôtels particuliers and the most fashionable international residences.

In good condition consistent with age, the black lacquered glass retaining its deep tone and the brass presenting a warm golden patina. Minor wear commensurate with eight decades of use. A table of considerable elegance and established pedigree, suited to a formal drawing room, a collector’s study, or any interior where the authority of fine French decorative arts is prized.