Labarge for Maitland Smith Framed Beveled Wall Mirror with Hand Paintings

Renowned in the world of interior design, American furniture manufacturer LaBarge specializes in elegant, handcrafted mirrors and glass top tables that complement a multitude of decorating styles. Its pieces draw on the timelessness of mid-century modernism, the glamour of Hollywood Regency, traditional European classicism and more. 

While the company is based in North Carolina, LaBarge has long looked to cultures all over the world for inspiration, relying on techniques such as carving, gilding, molding and hand-rubbed finishing to create their distinctive contemporary designs and antique reproductions.

LaBarge’s celebrated furnishings include sunburst mirrors outfitted with heavy brass detailing or Italian-style giltwood wall mirrors that feature hand-painted birds adorning the glass panels or chinoiserie patterns that dot the frames. Vintage LaBarge coffee tables, with their unconventional shapes, sleek glass tops and signature hooved feet in brass, are always in demand, while the brand’s dramatic, Louis XVI-style console tables with black lacquer and intricate gilding make a statement in any space. 

LaBarge Mirrors Inc. was founded in 1962 by Chicago-born furniture salesman William LaBarge Sr., who purchased the residential mirror division of Holland, Michigan’s Donnelly Mirrors — formerly Donnelly-Kelley Glass Company.

LaBarge’s founder, who had moved to Michigan in the late 1940s, sold the company to Masco Corporation in 1987, which had entered the furniture manufacturing business earlier in the decade and had by then owned widely loved brands Henredon, Drexel and others. A company called Heritage Home Group, LLC purchased LaBarge and a range of other brands in 2013.

In 2015, furniture designer Susan Hable created a new line of mirrors for LaBarge inspired by the likes of Italian architect Gio Ponti and modernists such as Belgian sculptor Georges Pelletier and German-American designer Karl Springer. North Carolina’s Rock House Farm (RHF Investments) acquired LaBarge and other manufacturers from Heritage Home Group in 2018.

Find vintage LaBarge mirrors, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.

The eclectic furnishings of Maitland-Smith celebrate artisan skills in an age of machines. Hand-carved woodwork, inlaid marquetry, painted detailing, gilding and lost wax casting lend the company’s decorative accents an artistic flair. Focused on pieces that add a dynamic flourish to an interior by incorporating tactile materials like leather, seashell inlays and crushed eggshell, the manufacturer draws inspiration across centuries, from the curvy forms of the Louis XV period to the geometric angles of mid-century modernism.

Paul Maitland-Smith established the company in Hong Kong in 1979, after getting his start in London in the 1950s as an antique dealer who also sold reproduction furniture, something that would become a Maitland-Smith specialty. The manufacturer’s early reproductions of 17th- and 18th-century furniture included Chippendale dining chairs, and soon afterward, Maitland-Smith expanded into a range of decorative designs that often exuded a whimsical spirit, whether a coffee table shaped like a stack of books or a pair of decorative obelisks. Maitland-Smith’s signature sculptural table lamps in particular show off this playful sensibility, with one balancing a pen-shell shade on a monkey’s tail and another taking on the form of a miniature hot-air balloon.

Since its founding, Maitland-Smith’s sourcing has been based in Asia, and although Paul Maitland-Smith later sold the company that still bears his name and is now headquartered in North Carolina, the brand’s furnishings are still largely made in Cebu, Philippines.

Today, Maitland-Smith continues to innovate on its finely crafted offerings by collaborating with contemporary designers and studios such as Tony Duquette Studios (founded by set and costume designer Tony Duquette in 1941), Celerie Kemble and painter and textile designer Susan Hable Smith.

Find a wide range of Maitland-Smith furniture for sale on 1stDibs.