Oak Buffet with 2 Doors and 3 Drawers by René Gabriel, 1940s

Cabinet in ash and mahogany by Joseph André Motte, group 4, Charon, 1954 Joseph-André Motte (1925 - 2013) was an interior architect and one of the great figures of French design in the 1950s and 1960s. At the École des arts appliqués à l'industrie (now ENSAAMA), he studied under René Gabriel, Louis Sognot and Albert Guénot, graduating top of his class in 1948. He then obtained his first collaboration with the Bon Marché art studio. One of his first models, the Tripodes armchair...

René Gabriel (1899 - 1950) is a precursor of French industrial design. He was one of the first to create, as early as the 1930s, economical mass-produced furniture combining aestheti...

The two-drawer shelving unit from 1950 is an emblematic piece of Marcel Gascoin's work and of the housing Reconstruction period. Marcel Gascoin, born August 24, 1907 in Le Havre and ...

Two-drawer shelf by Marcel Gascoin, ARHEC, 1947 Two-drawer Shelf created by Marcel Gascoin edited by ARHEC in 1947. This shelf is made from Oak wood. Presented in the UAM pavilion during the 1937 International Exhibition, the wall shelves on racks were used extensively by Marcel Gascoin. Playing on their freedom of arrangement, he invented modular storage walls where single, double or drawer shelves could be placed, as well as glass elements or a wall desk. The combination on racks allows for height adjustment; it gives the possibility (before consumer loans were commonplace) to equip themselves with successive purchases. (extract from "Marcel Gascoin, design utile" 2011) Marcel Gascoin was born in Le Havre, in the Perrey district, on 27 August 1907. Born into a family of sailors - his father was the head of a workshop in a practical school, in the carpentry section - he followed in his father's footsteps and became a carpenter and cabinetmaker by attending the applied arts section at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Le Havre, and then the Ecole nationale supérieure des Arts décoratifs in Paris. There he met Henri Sauvage, who encouraged him to focus on modern furniture. From then on, as he put it, he would adapt the container to the content. Recommended by Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1930, he participated in the exhibition of the Union des artistes modernes. Four years later, he participated in a competition to design a boat cabin, which led to his meeting with Jean Prouvé, with whom he would work. From 1938 onwards, he took part in the Salon des Arts Ménagers and created a line of storage units with a particular design, which the war was to bring to a standstill in France, but which found an echo in Scandinavian countries. In the aftermath of the war, his links with Raoul Dautry and Claudius Petit, the ministers in charge of reconstruction, enabled him to play an important role in the production of space-saving furniture, adapting techniques tried and tested in boat cabins to save even more space and in social production. In 1947, he became curator of the International Exhibition of Urbanism and Housing. He coordinated the development of model flats (Sotteville-Lès-Rouen) and met the architect, Marcel Lods...

René Gabriel Patinated Oak Sideboard, France, 1940s This mid-century sideboard, made from patinated French oak, was designed by René Gabriel in the 1940s in France. It was part of a...

René Gabriel Patinated Oak Sideboard, France, 1940s This mid-century sideboard, crafted from patinated French oak, was designed by René Gabriel in the 1940s in France. It was part o...

René Gabriel Patinated Oak Sideboard, France, 1940s This mid-century sideboard, crafted from patinated French oak, was designed by René Gabriel in the 1940s in France. It was part o...

René Gabriel Oak Sideboard (France, 1940s) "Il faut que l'art descende dans la rue." "Art must come down into the street." — René Gabriel A masterpiece of post-war French design, t...