Art Deco Furniture and Design
The polished, geometric luxury style of 1920s and 1930s interiors, from Parisian lacquer and rare veneers to American chrome and streamlining.
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About
Art Deco took its later name from the 1925 Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in Paris, where French decorators showed complete rooms of costly modern furniture. Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann set the standard with cabinets in macassar ebony, inlaid with ivory and raised on slender tapering legs. Jean Dunand worked in layered lacquer, René Lalique moulded frosted glass into lamps and vases, and Edgar Brandt forged ironwork with stylised fountains and flowers.
Look for sunbursts, chevrons, stepped outlines, and precious surfaces such as shagreen, parchment and eggshell lacquer. In the 1930s the style grew leaner and more industrial. In the United States Paul Frankl's stepped bookcases echoed Manhattan skyscrapers, and Donald Deskey fitted out Radio City Music Hall (1932) with chrome, aluminium and Bakelite. In France and Britain the look spread to cinemas and to ocean liners such as the Normandie (1935).
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