Art Nouveau Ashtrays

Art Nouveau furniture designers did not intend to revive past styles but rather to create something innovative that reflected the climate of the time. The style originated in France and Britain in the early 1880s before taking shape as a vastly popular movement in the United States and elsewhere in the years that followed. In furniture, jewelry-making and graphic design, Art Nouveau (“New Art”) designers embraced the inherent beauty of the natural world, freeing themselves from the stiff and stuffy confines of Victorian-era decorative arts.

Fittingly, Art Nouveau furniture makers — such as architects Victor Horta and Antoni Gaudí — were fluent in multiple media, freely producing handcrafted walnut tables as frequently as they worked in metal. Industrial materials, such as iron and glass, were utilized in concert with new methods of bending and shaping wood. Art Nouveau furniture mixed curved and geometric contour lines and is rich in details and adornments.

There are ways to tastefully integrate a touch of Art Nouveau into even the most modern interior — browse the ever-expanding selection of original antique Art Nouveau style furniture at 1stDibs, which includes decorative objects, seating, tables, garden elements and more.