Plywood Desks and Writing Tables

This stylish and highly functional desk was probably a one off commission, its rarity suggests so. It has a built in Bakelite switch that turns on the elegant angle poise light by Ad...

Desk in oak and oak plywood by Marcel Gascoin, 1949 Marcel Gascoin is the main representative of a French design born after the Second World War, with the reconstruction of destroyed cities. Born in Le Havre in 1907, the young Marcel followed in the footsteps of his father - workshop manager in a practical school, carpentry section - by attending the applied arts section of the École des Beaux-Arts du Havre, then the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. There he met Henri Sauvage who encouraged him to turn to modern furniture. He became a carpenter and cabinetmaker, and from then on he never ceased to adapt the container to the content, as he said himself. Recommended by Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1930, he participated in the exhibition of the Union of Modern Artists. Four years later, he participated in a competition for the design of a boat cabin, which allowed him to meet Jean Prouvé, with whom he would work. In 1938, he participated in the Salon des Arts Ménagers and created a line of storage furniture with a particular design that found an echo in Scandinavian countries. In the aftermath of the war, his links with Raoul Dautry and Claudius Petit, ministers in charge of reconstruction, allowed him to play an important role in the production of furniture with a small footprint, by adapting the techniques proven in boat cabins. In 1947, he became commissioner of the International Exhibition of Urbanism and Housing. He coordinated the construction of model apartments (Sotteville-Lès-Rouen) and met the architect Marcel Lods. It was also at this time that Marcel Gascoin and his collaborators saw their ideas prevail by adapting to the greatest number of people, for the mass production of apartments (model of apartment in Le Havre - Architect Auguste Perret...