Modern Console 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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
Early 20th Century American Modern Console Tables
Ceramic
Early 20th Century Chinese Modern Console Tables
Metal
Mid-20th Century Modern Console Tables
Mirror
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Modern Console Tables
Carrara Marble, Onyx, Brass, Stainless Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Console Tables
Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Console Tables
Fabric, Wood, Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Australian Modern Console Tables
Maple, Wood
1760s French Antique Modern Console Tables
Marble
1980s French Vintage Modern Console Tables
Brass
1970s Italian Vintage Modern Console Tables
Birch
20th Century American Modern Console Tables
Tortoise Shell, Faux Bamboo
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Modern Console Tables
Onyx
1980s American Vintage Modern Console Tables
Metal
2010s Unknown Modern Console Tables
Brass
Early 20th Century Modern Console Tables
Steel
Early 20th Century Italian Modern Console Tables
Acrylic
Early 20th Century Austrian Modern Console Tables
Walnut
Early 1900s French Antique Modern Console Tables
Steel
Early 20th Century Italian Modern Console Tables
Chrome, Brass
Early 20th Century American Modern Console Tables
Marble, Stone, Iron, Metal