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The elegant Egyptian coffee table easily collapses for storage with the release of a small brass sliding latch beneath the tabletop - a flexible design that exemplifies the functionalism inherent in classic furniture types. For Lassen and his contemporaries, function was paramount. Their approach – strongly influenced by Kaare Klint – often began with the careful study and refinement of long-existing archetypes such as safari-style knockdown chairs, British Windsor and Chippendale chairs, and flexible, practical tables like the Egyptian Table, inspired by folding stands found in Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922.Â
These clear, proven furniture types appealed to mid-century design and architecture visionaries, upholding their core belief that intelligent, purposeful design never goes out of style.Â
Mogens Lassen first exhibited this round coffee table at the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers' Guild Exhibition in 1940.
Dimensions Ø85 x H54 cm – Ø100 x H54 cm
Materials solid wood base, plywood table top, brass details
Wood oak or walnut – lacquered, oiled or white oiled
Coffee table Ø85 cm
from
Coffee table Ø100 cm
from
oiled oak
lacquered walnut
Mogens Lassen
Although Lassen's (1901-1987) main focus was architecture – having designed villas, high-rise buildings, sports complexes and shop interiors – he also contributed to the design of furniture and interiors. home accessories.
After training as a mason from 1919 to 1923, Lassen attended the school of architecture at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. He also trained in several drawing offices, including that of the Danish architect Tyge Hvass from 1925 to 1934.
Lassen's stay in Paris from 1927 to 1928 sparked the architect's interest in Le Corbusier's ideas for redesigning the interiors of houses, for example by adding mezzanines in rooms with high ceilings. Applying a similar experimental approach, Lassen designed houses whose rooms were shaped by both function and the daylight streaming in through the windows, and where the exterior spaces were just as carefully designed as the interiors.
Like his architecture, Lassen's furniture designs showed his interest in various materials and his ability to express his ideas through natural and man-made materials. His simple and functional wooden furniture, such as the Egyptian folding table, became furniture classics, while his steel works from the 1930s continue to serve as original examples of the innovations of international modernism.
As exhibition architect for the "Permanent Exhibition of Danish Applied Arts and Industrial Design" in Copenhagen from 1939 to 1967, Lassen originated a number of exhibitions whose style of presentation has enabled Danish applied art to gain international recognition.
In 1971, the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts awarded Lassen the C.F. Hansen Medal for his outstanding contribution to architecture.
