Brass Shelving Unit with Thick Glass Slab Shelves by Maison Jansen, French Work, Circa 1940

An elegant shelving unit of exceptional quality, this refined piece by Maison Jansen is constructed from a polished brass framework supporting shelves of thick glass slabs — their mass and translucency creating a striking visual effect of floating surfaces held in gleaming golden arms. The architectural clarity of the brass structure, with its precise joints and clean lines, speaks of the Jansen atelier's characteristic mastery of metalwork and its ability to elevate the functional into the beautiful. The thick glass shelves refract and reflect the light in ways that give the entire composition a luminous, almost aqueous quality.

Maison Jansen, the storied Parisian decorating house founded in 1880 by Dutch-born Jan-Pieter Jansen, consistently produced furniture and furnishing accessories of the most exceptional quality. Under the legendary Stéphane Boudin from the 1920s onwards, Jansen became synonymous with a style of interior decoration that combined neoclassical grandeur with contemporary innovation — and its shelving units, console tables and display pieces in brass and glass are among the most coveted products of the house's long history. This shelving unit, circa 1940, exemplifies Jansen's mastery at the height of its creative powers.

This shelving unit would be magnificent in a library, study or living room, providing elegant display space for books, objects or sculpture. Its brass and glass combination makes it simultaneously functional and decorative — a piece that works as hard as it looks beautiful. It pairs naturally with other Jansen pieces, with neoclassical and Empire furniture, and with any contemporary interior that prizes the authority of great French decorative craftsmanship.