Modern End 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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
1920s German Vintage Modern End Tables
Marble
Early 20th Century European Modern End Tables
Wood
Early 20th Century French Modern End Tables
Fruitwood
2010s Lebanese Modern End Tables
Silver, Brass, Copper
2010s American Modern End Tables
Steel, Iron
2010s American Modern End Tables
Steel, Iron
1930s French Vintage Modern End Tables
Poplar
Early 20th Century French Modern End Tables
Steel
Early 1900s English Antique Modern End Tables
Oak
Mid-20th Century French Modern End Tables
Bronze
2010s American Modern End Tables
Steel, Iron
2010s American Modern End Tables
Steel, Iron
1970s French Vintage Modern End Tables
Chrome
2010s American Modern End Tables
Steel, Iron
Early 20th Century North American Modern End Tables
Brass
1920s Italian Vintage Modern End Tables
Bronze, Gold Leaf
1920s Italian Vintage Modern End Tables
Bronze, Gold Leaf
Early 20th Century American Modern End Tables
Steel
Early 20th Century American Modern End Tables
Stainless Steel
1920s Italian Vintage Modern End Tables
Bronze, Gold Leaf
Early 20th Century English Modern End Tables
Satinwood
Early 20th Century Austrian Modern End Tables
Wood
1920s Italian Vintage Modern End Tables
Bronze
1920s Italian Vintage Modern End Tables
Bronze, Gold Leaf
1920s Italian Vintage Modern End Tables
Bronze
1920s French Vintage Modern End Tables
Metal