Shak Gallery Coffee and Cocktail Tables

Shaker table model 5267 for Danish Furniture makers in Fredericia, Denmark. Among the great mid-20th century Danish furniture designers, Børge Mogensen distinguished himself with his faith to traditional values of craftsmanship and honesty of materials. While peers such as Hans Wegner, Finn Juhl and Arne Jacobsen designed some of the most striking and now iconic furnishings of the era, Mogensen focused on making pieces that were simple, durable and comfortable — and in the long run perhaps more useful and better loved. Mogensen studied under and later worked for Kaare Klint, a master cabinetmaker whose chief tenets were quality of construction and simplicity of line. Klint was a classicist, who believed that furniture forms should evolve from those of historical models. So, too, in his way was Mogensen, as two of his best-known earlier pieces attest. His 1945 Spokeback Sofa, with hinged arms that can be lowered to facilitate lounging, is a reinterpretation of the venerable Knole settee. With the oval silhouette of its plywood backrest and waterdrop-shaped cutouts, Mogenson’s Shell chair, designed in 1949, can be seen as a novel take on early 19th century Empire side chairs. Yet Mogensen shared the aesthetical sensibilities of his most forward-looking colleagues. His cabinets deploy the same spare geometries and lushly figured woods as those of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and his disciple Florence Knoll, the chief difference being that Mies and Knoll used...

Label: Señal S.A.Hecho en Mexico. Cocobolo wood and black leather mid-century modern coffee table from the sixties. The leather has a beautiful sensual feel and is in excellent cond...

Coffee table designed by Isamu Kenmochi manufactured by Tendo Mokko in Japan, circa 1967. In good original condition with minor wear consistent with age and use, preserving a beautif...

From the Annika series. 1950's. Stamped. Patinated wood. As the descendant of four generations of Swedish master cabinetmakers, Bruno Mathsson was born to design furniture. Mathsson was known as a methodical perfectionist who made usefulness the fundamental attribute of his works, yet he was also a ceaseless experimenter, who constantly searched for improvements in form, materials and methods of making. Like the Finnish designer Alvar Aalto, Mathsson was one of the first Scandinavians to embrace undulating, biomorphic forms in furniture. His early pieces such as the Eva and Pernilla series of chairs incorporate dramatically flowing bent beechwood frames, making them some of the most instantly recognizable works of 20th-century design. Mathsson was also a pioneer of ergonomics — he is said to have based the contours of his chairs on the impression his body made when he sat in a snow bank — and used supple, accommodating woven webbing for seats. His concern for practicality is shown by pieces such as the Maria table. An elegant design with gate legs and hinged leaves, the table measures more than nine feet long when fully extended, but folds down to just nine inches in thickness. From the mid-1940s through the 1950s, Mathsson focused on architecture, designing and building houses with insulated, triple-glazed window walls...

This elegant Danish modern midcentury surfboard coffee table model ‘Frisco’ was designed by Folke Ohlsson for Bra Bohag for Tingströms in the 1960s. Is flanked by raised lips...

Dimensions : H 45 cm x L 120 cm x D 60 cm or H 17.7 x 47.2 x 23.6 inches Coffee table designed by Isamu Kenmochi manufactured by Tendo Mokko in Japan, circa 1967. In good origina...

Coffee table model Plommonet designed by Kerstin Hörlin-Holmquist in the 1950's. Produced by Nordiska Kompaniet in Sweden. Refinished whilst respecting the original patina.