Arturo Pani Glitter

Arturo Pani has been called the Jean Royère of Mexico. Like the adored French master of the mid-20th century, Pani won an upper-class clientele who appreciated the vivacity and exuberance he brought to interiors. His specialty was using new materials to reinterpret traditional stylings — the sensuous curves and arabesques of the Rococo; stately neoclassical motifs — for a modern context. Pani's work is a thing apart: at once theatrical and distinguished, playful and grand.

Pani was born to splendid settings. His father was Mexico’s ambassador to France, and both Pani and his brother Mario, a noted architect of the International style, would study at the prestigious École des Beaux Arts in Paris. Pani made his name in the late 1930s by designing lavish interiors that belied the austere facade of his brother’s new Hotel Reforma in Mexico City. Mexico’s affluent class welcomed Pani’s technique for juxtaposing Mario’s sleek modernist architectural envelope with voluptuous decor. His style became known as the “Acapulco look” in the 1930s, when Pani became the blossoming Pacific resort’s decorator of choice to the jet set. Pani’s own Acapulco villa would become a favorite backdrop for the society photographer Slim Aarons.

Though Pani frequently created furniture along the strict, geometric lines associated with mid-century modernism — and did, on occasion, produce pieces with wildly flowing futuristic lines — his signature designs were those that offered an idiosyncratic, spare-yet-sumptuous take on historical forms.

Pani’s favorite material was wrought iron, usually gilded. With it, he produced tables with elaborate sheaf-of-wheat bases, or scrolling baroque supports; chairs with frames made of iron rods bent to suggest the sinuous seatbacks and cabriole legs of Louis XV pieces; or — jumping a stylistic generation forward — designs with Louis XVI elements such as arrows and chevrons. Pani’s work has again become chic. As you will see on these pages, like few others, Arturo Pani had a true sense of drama. Virtually everything he designed is a showstopper.

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The California-born style of Hollywood Regency, also known as Regency Moderne, emerged during the Golden Era of cinema from the 1920s to the ’50s. Decadent and bold, vintage Hollywood Regency furniture and interiors playfully mix colors like jewel tones and hot pinks with lacquered walls, gilded accents, mirrored surfaces and metallic finishes for maximalist spaces.

Although it involved elements of the coinciding Art Deco movement, such as a preference for clean lines, Hollywood Regency was much more opulent, inspired by glamorous movie stars and the lavish set designs for films being made in Tinseltown. Furniture designers associated with the style embraced an eclectic range of influences, including throwbacks to previous styles of grandeur, such as Rococo, neoclassical and chinoiserie, as well as materials, from bamboo dining chairs to lucite bar carts to sunburst mirrors made from gilded resin. Hollywood Regency end tables, floor lamps, chandeliers and other pieces tended to be small-scale, fitting into an overall design rather than serving as a focal point.

Interior decorator Dorothy Draper led the shaping of the Hollywood Regency style and also designed iconic pieces like the España chest, which was manufactured by Henredon. Virginia native William “Billy” Haines, a furniture designer who started as an actor, contrasted hand-painted wallpaper with Chinese ceramics and Chippendale chairs, while architect John Elgin Woolf imbued his Beverly Hills designs with theatrical details. Paul Revere Williams, a trailblazing African-American architect, was pivotal in defining the look through his commercial projects, such as the 1940s Beverly Hills Hotel and bespoke homes that mixed everything from Louis XV paneling to Georgian architecture.

Find a collection of vintage Hollywood Regency bedroom furniture, tables, seating and other pieces on 1stDibs.

As a practical focal point in your living area, antique and vintage coffee tables and cocktail tables are an invaluable addition to any interior.

Low tables that were initially used as tea tables or coffee tables have been around since at least the mid- to late-1800s. Early coffee tables surfaced in Victorian-era England, likely influenced by the use of tea tables in Japanese tea gardens. In the United States, furniture makers worked to introduce low, long tables into their offerings as the popularity of coffee and “coffee breaks” took hold during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

It didn’t take long for coffee tables and cocktail tables to become a design staple and for consumers to recognize their role in entertaining no matter what beverages were being served. Originally, these tables were as simple as they are practical — as high as your sofa and made primarily of wood. In recent years, however, metal, glass and plastics have become popular in coffee tables and cocktail tables, and design hasn’t been restricted to the conventional low profile, either.

Visionary craftspeople such as Paul Evans introduced bold, geometric designs that challenge the traditional idea of what a coffee table can be. The elongated rectangles and wide boxy forms of Evans’s desirable Cityscape coffee table, for example, will meet your needs but undoubtedly prove imposing in your living space.

If you’re shopping for an older coffee table to bring into your home — be it an antique Georgian-style coffee table made of mahogany or walnut with decorative inlays or a classic square mid-century modern piece comprised of rosewood designed by the likes of Ettore Sottsass — there are a few things you should keep in mind.

Both the table itself and what you put on it should align with the overall design of the room, not just by what you think looks fashionable in isolation. According to interior designer Tamara Eaton, the material of your vintage coffee table is something you need to consider. “With a glass coffee table, you also have to think about the surface underneath, like the rug or floor,” she says. “With wood and stone tables, you think about what’s on top.”

Find the perfect centerpiece for any room, no matter what your personal furniture style on 1stDibs — shop Art Deco coffee tables, travertine coffee tables and other antique and vintage coffee tables and cocktail tables today.