R. Louis Bofferding Decorative and Fine Art Tables

This table’s bold, graphic, and geometrical marquetry in satinwood and rosewood recalls the paintings of Bridget Riley and other 1960s Op Art artists. The patterning even extends to...

This 1930s Italian bench is so over-scaled, and monumental in appearance, that it seems to have been made for the large room it was destined, rather than the comfort of a typical sitter. As such, it would function equally well as a low side table or a high cocktail table. We’ll allow the buyer to determine its use. The designer was Pierluigi Colli, and the fabricator Martinotti, the Turin furniture and interior decorating firm that was established in 1831, and exhibited at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and the 1904 St Louis World’s Fair. Colli’s family owned a textile company that supplied Martinotti with upholstery fabrics, suggesting nepotism had something to do with his being hired as the firm's director in 1926. Nevertheless, he proved himself worthy as a designer and a businessman. Having studied in Paris at the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs, he befriended leading French designers, and arranged for Martinotti to retail Lalique glass and Jean Perzel lighting. In addition, the quality of their work, and Colli’s dedication to the modern design movement, prompted Carlo Mollino, Gio Ponti, and Gino Levi-Montalcini, among others, to have Martinotti fabricate some of their furniture. Colli’s claim to fame, however, is his own work as a designer, and his ability to master the vocabularies of every trend from Art Deco to midcentury modern. During the Great Depression, when nearly every nation floundered economically, fascist Italy...

Our table was made of birch, solid and veneered, stained a rich brown, and topped off with a slab of Bohemian breccia marble. We date it to around 1928, and attribute the design to Fritz August Breuhaus de Groot, who coined the term Kultivierte Sachlichkeit (Cultured Objectivity) to describe his work, and distinguish it from the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) practiced by his contemporaries Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and Lily Reich. The table bears a passing resemblance to a considerably simplified, marble-topped ovoid one that he designed for his 1934 Berlin living room. Breuhaus was a man on the make. The first of his three marriages was to the daughter of an industrialist, who financed the building of luxury villas and workers’ housing designed by his son-in-law. In 1929, Breuhaus, the son of a dentist, added “de Groot” to his name, falsely linking himself to a distinguished family of painters. By then, he’d been fudging his academic record for years. That didn’t prevent a teaching appointment at the State University of Bavaria, which allowed him to add the prestigious “Herr Professor” prefix to his name. Yet he never followed through on the teaching — he was far too busy designing more luxury villas (commissions he accepted only if he could furnish them as well), and products for his own company, which included furniture, textiles, wallpapers, lighting, and fine silver. In addition to designing aircraft interiors for Lufthansa, and pullman railroad...

The January 1935 issue of Plaisir de France featured two dining tables by Jansen. The editors saw fit to present the same photograph of one of the two once again in the book Decoration de France, a 1949 compilation of articles and images previously published in the magazine. This photograph shows the table before an antique Chinese screen, extravagantly set with Lalique glass, and a fantastical Misia...

Every contour and plane of this exquisite tray-top, mahogany table on wheels is outlined with glinting brass stringing — a hallmark of Russian cabinetry in the late 18th and early 19...

This charming, quirky 19th century black-painted cast-iron table is mounted on wheels, and fitted with a modern custom black opaline-glass top framed in bronze by Guerin.

This large Art Deco table is attributed to the Austrian born New York designer Eugene Schoen. The mahogany carcass is veneered in Macassar, and surfaced with a sheet of black opaline...

This pair of walnut-veneered, black marble and brass neoclassical pedestals bear a striking resemblance to those that appeared in the rooms decorated in by Eleanor Brown of McMillen ...

French gate-leg table, circa 1650. Oak with metal fittings. Measures: Height 28 ¼“ width 54“ depth 20 ½“ / 41 ½“/ 62“ $20,000. This solid oak French Baroque table...

This charming 19th-century English regimental drum was fitted with a glass top to serve as a table. It bears the painted arms of the Royal Dublin Fusil...