Large Two-Tier Chrome & Brass Coffee Table, Attributed to Willy Rizzo, circa 1970

Among the most sought-after names in 1970s French and Italian design, Willy Rizzo produced coffee tables that combined the precision of industrial metal-working with a decorator’s instinct for luxury materials and refined proportion. This large two-tier rectangular table, measuring 110 × 75 × 39 cm and dating from around 1970, exemplifies the vocabulary that has made his work perennially collectable: polished chrome, brass accent detail, and smoked glass in a composition of architectural clarity.

The frame is constructed from highly polished chrome flat-bar rails and square-section uprights, their mirrored surfaces creating an almost infinite reflective play with their surroundings. Along each horizontal rail runs a continuous border of small brass studs — a decorative device characteristic of Rizzo’s œuvre that adds warmth and visual texture to what might otherwise be a purely austere form. The studs reference the world of fine upholstery and leatherwork, suggesting connections to the broader luxury trades that supplied the Parisian interior-design market of the period.

Both shelves are fitted with smoked glass panels whose grey-bronze tint absorbs rather than reflects, creating a tonal counterpoint to the chrome frame and lending the table a depth that clear glass would not achieve. The two-tier format is both practical — providing generous surface area on both levels — and structurally elegant, with the lower shelf serving as a visual base that stabilises the composition from any angle.

The attribution to Willy Rizzo rests on the distinctive combination of polished chrome architecture, brass stud border detail, and smoked glass that characterises the designer’s known production from this period. Pieces of this scale, with two full-size smoked glass tiers, are among the more desirable Rizzo table formats in the current collector market.