Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Ceramic, Wood
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Carrara Marble, Metal
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Walnut
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Ceramic
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Chrome
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Walnut
1960s Spanish Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass, Wood
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Bronze, Pewter
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Steel
1960s North American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Glass
1960s Unknown Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Iron
1960s Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Terracotta, Glass
1960s Scandinavian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Pine
1960s Indian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Teak
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Bronze
1960s Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Walnut
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Wood, Oak
1960s Swedish Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass, Steel
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Lava
1960s German Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum
1960s North American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Walnut
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Stainless Steel
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Bronze, Enamel
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Chrome
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Mahogany
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Aluminum
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Plastic
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Stainless Steel
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Stainless Steel
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Nickel
1960s European Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Lava
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Mahogany
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Chrome
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
1960s American Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Bronze
1960s French Vintage Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Travertine