De Coene Side Table, circa 1930

Belgium / 1930 / side table / De Coene Freres / copper, wood, marble / Art Deco Art Deco side table made by De Coene Freres Belgium in the 1930s. This monumental table has a marble ...

Discover the charm of the past with this original 1930s Art Deco side table. With its walnut veneer top, this piece of furniture combines craftsmanship with elegance. Its geometric...

Henry van de Velde; Art Deco; Arts & Crafts movement; Coffee table; Bed Side Table; Side Table; De Coene; 1960's; Mid-Century Modern; Belgian Design; Bedroom Furniture; Mid-Centu...

Our table was made of birch, solid and veneered, stained a rich brown, and topped off with a slab of Bohemian breccia marble. We date it to around 1928, and attribute the design to Fritz August Breuhaus de Groot, who coined the term Kultivierte Sachlichkeit (Cultured Objectivity) to describe his work, and distinguish it from the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) practiced by his contemporaries Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, and Lily Reich. The table bears a passing resemblance to a considerably simplified, marble-topped ovoid one that he designed for his 1934 Berlin living room. Breuhaus was a man on the make. The first of his three marriages was to the daughter of an industrialist, who financed the building of luxury villas and workers’ housing designed by his son-in-law. In 1929, Breuhaus, the son of a dentist, added “de Groot” to his name, falsely linking himself to a distinguished family of painters. By then, he’d been fudging his academic record for years. That didn’t prevent a teaching appointment at the State University of Bavaria, which allowed him to add the prestigious “Herr Professor” prefix to his name. Yet he never followed through on the teaching — he was far too busy designing more luxury villas (commissions he accepted only if he could furnish them as well), and products for his own company, which included furniture, textiles, wallpapers, lighting, and fine silver. In addition to designing aircraft interiors for Lufthansa, and pullman railroad...