An Enamel Coffee Table

Enamel Coffee Table

When people mention coffee tables, one thinks of the wooden table sitting in front of the couch with the damp glass circle rings and crayon marks marring its surface.

Of course there are also the homes where the table holds the beer and potato chips and pretzels every Sunday for the football game.

Then again, you may have gone in the other direction and setting anything on your prize enamel topped coffee table would be a sentence of death.

Popular in the 1950’s, the most popular enamel table were tables made of wood with an inlay of a picture or design across the top made of enamel.

These pictures would carefully set into the wood and then a layer of clear material would be set over it to protect the inlay inside.

Table material varied from mahogany to walnut to cherry, depending on the manufacturer and individual artist would set each piece of the inlay in place.

Some of the most well known enamel inlaid tables made were created by Philip and Kelvin Laverne.

These gentlemen enjoyed using etched bronze and brass for their table and etching the scenes, typically Oriental in nature, into the top.

They would then add the enamel coloring to certain areas only, such as people and flowers, and leave the rest etched.

The whole table was shaped in an Oriental design, right down to the perfectly squared sides and legs and lowness to the ground.

Most of them only stood a little under a foot and a half form the floor.

To find one of these tables nowadays you almost surely have to contact a high-end antique dealer.

The NoHo Modern Gallery in Los Angeles, California currently has a beautiful enamel coffee table among their inventory.

Price would be negotiated by the serious bidder and the gallery personnel.