Found: Antique Bagues Style Brass Bamboo Table

Call this the week of furniture… I have not accomplished a thing working on our house besides moving in and luxuriating in all its extra space.  And closets.  And cabinets. And being able to cook food in my own kitchen.  And having a sexy new full-sized refrigerator.

And picking up this little treasure:

When I say “little”, I do mean fairly little.  This coffee/cocktail table is petite, at just 31” wide, 16” deep, and 16” tall.  It definitely belongs to an era before overscaled and overstuffed La-Z boys!  Note that my midcentury dragon couch above (yes, that is THE dragon couch – isn’t she fab?), while extra long, is pretty short and sits low to the ground. Now picture your grandmother’s refined and possibly plastic-covered formal living room furniture – see how the scale of this table is much more suited to settees and bergere chairs?

She is such a dainty little lady! Solid brass, as far as I can tell, but cast in a willowy and free form bamboo design.

I could tell from the small Craigslist posting photo that this was going to be a good find.  When we showed up, I was a little taken aback by her small stature, as the posting lacked dimensions, and the chipped and scratched condition of the glass top. [Sidenote: it’s usually a good idea to verify dimensions before you go, but in this case, and at the listed price, I was sold no matter what.]  But upon examining the details of the brass work, I started to feel that I might have something pretty special on my hands…

Look at those adorable little feet!  Each foot ends in a perfectly sculpted little brass hoof!  Don’t ask me what bamboo has to do with hooves, but I love that this table reminds me of dryads and fauns – I love the whimsy, and I love whoever designed this table for that whimsy!

I can’t say that this table was certainly designed by the famous French company Maison Bagues, but I have a hunch, based on poring over similar tables attributed to the Bagues family. For example: here and here.  Of course I could be wildly wrong – researching a piece online is fraught with misattributions and “in the style of”.  But I feel that this little table is a special piece with a special history, and I’m so happy to have her under my roof for the time being!