Designer, artist and architect Eileen Gray was one of the most fascinating creative figures of the 20th century. Her body of work includes lustrous lacquered pieces — her Dragons chair set an auction record for modern furniture ($28 million) at the 2009 sale of the Yves Saint Laurent estate — and sleek chrome furnishings that rival the work of Le Corbusier and the members of the Bauhaus as exemplars of pure, modernist design.
The independent and unconventional daughter of Irish landed gentry, Gray studied painting at London’s Slade School of Fine Art in her early twenties before moving to Paris in 1906 to pursue her artistic dreams. Gray had become captivated by lacquerware after seeing an exhibit in the Victoria & Albert Museum, and in Paris persuaded an expatriate Japanese master of the painstaking process, Seizo Sugawara, to teach her. Within a few years, Gray had become known among the cognoscenti for her sculptural lacquered furnishings, which she incorporated into the homes of interior design clients.
Gray was ever evolving as a designer. By the early 1920s she was creating geometric works that embodied the essence of Art Deco and the nascent modernist design movement. Some pieces — such as her Bricks screen, an assemblage of pivoting rectangular panels — employ the planar forms favored by Gerrit Rietveld and other De Stijl architects of the Netherlands. Others feature the tubular chrome framing used by Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. These include the Bibendum chair — named for the resemblance of its semicircular back and armrest to the character known in English as the Michelin Man — and the adjustable E 1027 side table, conceived in 1927 for the interiors of a stark white villa she designed for herself in the South of France.
Never a self-promoter, Gray drifted out of the limelight in the 1930s. Interest in her work was revived in the early ’70s, however, when the estates of her early clients came to auction. Her original lacquer pieces are the most coveted, but, as the sale of the Dragons chair shows, are rare and extremely expensive.
None of Gray’s designs were made in large numbers until, a few years before her death, she granted a production license. These pieces range in price from $1,000 to $2,500, depending on furniture type and condition. Gray’s work has become iconic of practical and elegant modernist design. Yet, as you will see on 1stDibs, many of her creations have a simplicity that makes them welcome even in a traditional setting.
Eileen Gray Double X Table from Classicon
By Eileen Gray
Located in Hamburg, DE
When an avant-garde tubular steel design meets a classic refectory table, the result is the double X. A large but elegant table whose X-shaped supports ensure optimal rigidity. Like ...
Steel, Chrome
$1,677 / item
H 40.16 in Dm 20.48 in
ClassiCon Adjustable Table E 1027 in Chrome and Crystal by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
This is perhaps the Classic among the classics. Its ingeniously proportioned, distinctive form has made this height-adjustable table one of the most popular design icons of the 20th century. It is named after the summer house...
Steel
$6,718 / item
H 39.77 in W 54.73 in D 39.77 in
ClassiCon Partially Foldable Rivoli Side Table by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
Rivoli served as the tea table in the living room of Eileen Gray‘s summer house E 1027. The graceful lightweight that no doubt was used on the terrace when necessary, is a lovingly t...
Steel
ClassiCon Jean Fold Out Table by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
Jean, named after Eileen Gray‘s intimate friend of many years, the architect Jean Badovici, stood in various modeis in their summer villa E 1027. "Every room has at its disposal one ...
Steel
$1,676 / item
H 40.16 in Dm 20.48 in
ClassiCon Adjustable Table E 1027 in Black and Crystal by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
This is perhaps the classic among the classics. Its ingeniously proportioned, distinctive form has made this height-adjustable table one of the most popular design icons of the 20th century. It is named after the summer house...
Steel
ClassiCon Menton Table by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
Eileen Gray did not want delicate luxury furniture for her house in Castellar, on the way from Menton to the Alps, but instead versatile pieces for every day use. She succeeded with Menton in one of her most ingenious constructions. Through a simple rotation of the top one has either a low or a high table as desired. Eileen Gray used...
Steel
ClassiCon Occasional Round Side Table in White by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
The Latin for furniture, res mobiles, is based on the word mobile. Eileen Gray took this very literally. She loved light, functional furniture that could be moved around easily. One can lift this table "for all occasions" as if it had a handle and carry it exactly to where one needs it. Like the adjustable table E 1027...
Steel
ClassiCon Lou Perou Folding Table by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
Like the majority of Eileen Gray‘s tables, this one too can transform itself. And as always she found an unexpected solution. The folding section of the tabletop is supported by a si...
Steel
$7,041 / item
H 28.75 in W 88.59 in D 43.31 in
ClassiCon Double X Table in Crystal Glass by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
When an avant-garde steel tube design meets the classical refectory table, the result is the double X. A large, yet elegant table, its X-shaped supports make for optimum rigidity. Li...
Steel
$2,374
H 27.96 in W 50.79 in D 25.2 in
Modernist Flip Top Dining Table Jean by Eileen Gray for ClassiCon
By Eileen Gray
Located in Beograd, RS
In this listing you will find a Modernist Flip Top Table "Jean" designed by Eileen Gray for her architecture project Villa E-1027, also known and House by the Sea. It was originally ...
Steel
$14,792 / item
H 33.08 in W 18.51 in D 22.05 in
ClassiCon Petite Coiffeuse Table in Black by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
Eileen Gray understood how to combine the aesthetic with the practical as did few designers. The geometrically structured small dressing table, de...
Steel
ClassiCon Occasional Round Side Table in Black by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
The Latin for furniture, res mobiles, is based on the word mobile. Eileen Gray took this very literally. She loved light, functional furniture that could be moved around easily. One ...
Steel
$2,438 / item
H 22.45 in W 14.18 in D 14.18 in
ClassiCon Occasional Rectangular Side Table in Black by Eileen Gray
By Eileen Gray
Located in New York, NY
The Latin for furniture, res mobiles, is based on the word mobile. Eileen Gray took this very literally. She loved light, functional furniture that could be moved around easily. One ...
Steel
Eileen Grey Jean Table and Axia Chair
By Eileen Gray
Located in Dronten, NL
Eileen Grey Jean (extendable) table and axia chair in black leather. Jean table, named after Eileen Gray's intimate friend of many years, the architect Je...
Steel