Postmodern Shagreen Coffee Table, France, 1980s

Design
1980s

Manufacture
1980-1989

Location
Lonigo, IT

Postmodern Shagreen Coffee Table, wood and leather, France, 1980s.

This postmodern coffee table was made in France in the 1980s. It is a low, rectangular volume with softly rounded corners, set on a narrower plinth that sits well inside the perimeter of the top. The recess leaves the upper block with a pronounced overhang, so the mass appears to hover just above the floor. The proportions are architectural and the profile is plain, in the spirit of the 1980s revival of 1930s French Art Deco. The entire surface, top, sides and base, is covered in shagreen, laid in rectangular panels whose joins are visible along the sides and across the top. The pebbled grain is regular on the faces and tightens at the rolled edges, where the surface shows a light, even wear. Small variations in tone and texture from one panel to the next come from the hide itself, and they give the piece the depth that a single uniform sheet would lack. It works as a low anchor in front of a sofa, or as a sculptural object in an open room.