Three-Tier Brass Console

The three-tier console is a form with deep roots in French decorative tradition, from the lacquered étagères of the Rococo to the pierced brass stands of the Second Empire. This example, in polished brass and dating from around 1970, brings the formula into the modernist era with a clean, architectural approach: three graduated shelves supported by a slender brass frame, each tier providing generous display or storage space while the whole composition maintains an elegant vertical presence.

Brass was the quintessential material of the French decorative arts revival of the 1960s and 1970s. Where earlier generations had favoured mahogany and ormolu, post-war Parisian ateliers turned to solid and sheet brass as the expression of a new gilded modernity. Warm in tone yet precise in its lines, brass allowed craftsmen to achieve both the radiance of gold and the structural discipline of metal, producing pieces that belonged equally to the salon and the study.

At 65 cm wide and 79.5 cm tall, the console is well-suited to a hallway, a living room wall, or behind a sofa, its three tiers accommodating books, decorative objects, plants, or bar accessories with equal ease. The relatively shallow depth of 40 cm allows the piece to occupy a wall without encroaching on the room's circulation — a practical virtue for the compact Parisian apartments for which such furniture was typically designed.

In very good condition consistent with its age, with the warm patina that characterises well-kept brass of the period. A refined and functional piece in the tradition of French metalwork at its most assured.