Alain Delon, who died in August at the age of 88, was known for inspiring obsessions with his looks. One of the most adored French actors of the 20th century, he made his screen debut in 1957, catching cinema’s New Wave as the choice of directors like Luchino Visconti and Michelangelo Antonioni.
Thanks to streaming services like the Criterion Channel, it’s possible to bring Delon into your living room. But why not really bring Delon into your living room? Francis Lord, of Milord Antiques, in Montreal, picked up a multipurpose Alain Delon table from a New Englander who collected Pop art and mod furniture. The table is part of a line Delon developed in the mid 1970s for the venerable French furniture maker (and interior design firm) Maison Jansen, which was founded in 1880 and reigned in the field until 1989.
Delon’s range included a variety of cabinets, consoles, side tables, sofas and chairs. But this piece, says Lord, fit no established category: it’s a coffee table that’s also a bar.
The table, although just 13 inches high, is a scene-stealing 63-inch square. Its perimeter is made of black laminate panels, one of which lifts up to reveal a “secret” chrome-lined compartment. In the center of the table, bands of steel, brass and copper cascade down into a well that’s deep enough for liquor bottles and tall glasses. The piece bears the signature and monogram of Delon, who wrote in a book that comes with the table that if he hadn’t been an actor, he might have become an architect.
The piece, says Lord, is “the definition of French glamor in interior design in the 1970s” — a time when fashion moguls Paco Rabanne and Pierre Cardin and other celebrities were lending their names to sleek furniture with echoes of Art Deco.
Delon promoted his line at Milan’s Salone del Mobile, where a critic from Italian newspaper La Stampa said his designs looked like they were taken from a movie set. It was meant as a dig, but it describes an aesthetic many collectors prize. Delon’s pieces, like the actor himself, are pure French sizzle.
