Sphinxes Coffee Table in Bronze with Venere Mirror Top, Circa 1970

This spectacular coffee table embodies the grandeur of French neoclassical style from the 1970s. Its patinated bronze base, adorned at the four corners with finely sculpted sphinxes, supports a magnificent Venere mirror top with antiqued reflections. The whole combines the majesty of classical ornamentation with the decorative modernity of Parisian haute décoration. The sphinx, a mythological figure of Egyptian origin reinterpreted by Greco-Roman art and then by the neoclassicism of the 18th and 19th centuries, is an emblematic motif of French stately furniture. Highly fashionable during the Directoire, Empire and during the return to classical taste in the 1940s–1970s, it confers a particular nobility on the pieces that bear it. The Venere mirror top, an ancestral Italian Venetian mirror-making technique with nuanced and antiqued reflections, brings to this table a unique visual depth and brilliance. It dialogues harmoniously with the patinated bronze, whose plays of light reveal all the finesse of the sculptural modelling of the sphinxes. With its generous dimensions of 47.24 in wide, 21.65 in deep and 16.34 in high, this coffee table will naturally find its place at the heart of a refined living room. Exceptional piece sourced by Maison Barrois, it will sublimate both classical and contemporary interiors. Good overall condition.