Wrought Iron Coffee Table with a Top of Ceramic Tiles Depicting Polychrome Pitchers, Signed, French Work, 1950s

This coffee table features a rectangular top composed of enameled ceramic tiles on a matte black ground, painted with a frieze of five stylized pitchers and amphorae in polychrome enamels, bright orange, golden yellow, green, outlined with an incised line. The decor bears a painted signature lower right. The black-lacquered wrought iron base combines curved legs in an arch ending in a scroll, joined by a twisted stretcher.

This marriage of black wrought iron and enameled ceramic in frank colors is emblematic of French decorative arts of the 1950s, a period when ceramist workshops, in the manner of Vallauris, collaborated with ironworkers to produce cheerful and robust coffee tables, much sought after today.

Condition report: Good overall condition. Fresh and brilliant enamels, tiles without visible loss, sound structure; black lacquer of the base with the slightest rubbing of use. A charming coffee table for a living room, a veranda or a holiday house.