Czech Streamlined Tubular Chrome Table or Plant Stand

This clean lined, streamlined Czech chrome art deco  piece  can be viewed and used in three ways. It is a side table elegant in its simplicity, it can be a plant stand and, technically ,it should be called an “etagere” – a multi leveled set of open shelves on which to display collections of things. Wikipedia would say “knick knacks” but we have stylish collectibles in mind!

What makes this so interesting is that it is associated with Mid Century style and it is most often assumed that it was made in  the 1950s. Ah, but in the early 1930′s Czechoslovakia-and other Eastern European countries were very much ahead of the curve in their design direction. Having explored the flourishing forms of Art Nouveau at the turn of the century, by the 1930s they were embracing the use of materials like chrome in modernist pieces such as this one.  The underside of the shelves is black but the top is chrome with a mirror finish.

This “etagere” was featured in the Life and Style in the Age of Art Deco exhibition at the San Francisco Airport Museum, and something in similar form is being shown now at the Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York.