Swift and Monell Coffee Table

Boat-shaped coffee table with beveled edges in silvered walnut by the team of German-born American architects Oscar Stonorov and Willo von Moltke, designed for the Museum of Modern Art's 1941 Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition, and produced in very small numbers by Red Lion Furniture of Pennsylvania. Per the MoMA catalog, “a design may be called organic when there is an harmonious organization of the parts within the whole, according to structure, material, and purpose. Within this definition there can be no vain ornamentation or superfluity, but the part of beauty is none the less great—in ideal choice of material, in visual refinement, and in the rational elegance of things internded for use.” The suite of furnishings designed by Stonorov and von Moltke---including a vanity, coffee table, dining set, bed, nightstand, and case pieces--won honorable mention at the seminal competition and received a preferred placement at the MoMA exhibition itself. The winning entries in the competition, which included the iconic seating and unit furniture by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, were showcased at eleven department stores across the country--notably Bloomingdale's and Kaufmann's--and were intended for serial production, but America's entry into WWII a month after the opening of the exhibition, along with higher than expected price points across the board meant that few pieces were actually made outside the ones initially sent to the participating department stores. This was especially true for the Stonorov and von Moltke suite, which wound up being among the most expensive items...

Rectangular cocktail table of cut laminated plywood with solid wood supports. A well-constructed circa 1940s design with an architectural bearing, likely a one-off commission. The top sits within two lateral struts, giving the appearance of bridge architecture. . A design in the manner of Nathan Lerner...

PETRA is a coffee table made of petrified wood floating on a white acrylic base. In Greek mythology, Medusa could turn her beholder into stone just by a look. For wood, this process takes millions of years resulting in a breathtaking beautifully dense material. Buried in the soil, the enclosure of metals and minerals during this natural transformation give each piece a unique set of colors and veins. The unique material formed by nature is the design protagonist of the PETRA coffee table...

Round brass and glass coffee table.