Rare German Expressionist Table

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...

This cylinder box is an exceptionally fine example of straw marquetry, and a rare survivor of the craft, which involves the cutting, coloring, and mounting of split straws to form de...

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...

This English 1930s mirror-framed dressing table mirror could also serve as a frame for a photograph. On the cresting are three acid-etched plumes...