Before he was established as an “upholsterer-decorator” on the Boulevard Haussmann, Marcel Coard met couturier Jacques Doucet in 1914 and began sketching a vitrine with a rounded structure in Macassar ebony, mother-of-pearl, ivory and gold leaf. This was his first piece of furniture; the design was groundbreaking, the materials were precious, and thanks to the financial support from Jacques Doucet, Coard called upon the most skilled cabinet makers, lacquerers and sculptors in order to bring this first emblematic piece to life. For the rest of his career he would remain influenced by his first patron who taught him to love beautiful materials and unique pieces of innovative design. As Coard explained in a March 1973 interview, “I constantly avoided repeating myself. Produ🐻cing a series of the same piece was never a consideration for me. These works of furniture were each realized individually u🧸sing the best materials that I could find (I chose each plank of wood with care)."

This rigor of his creations allowed Marcel Coard to work for prestigious collectors who became loyal customers that would return for new commissions. Paul Cocteau, the elder brother of poet Jean Cocteau, gave Coard carte blanche to create the entirety of his secondary residence in Touraine, after first having acquired a few of his works for his Parisian apartment. Amongst the pieces commissioned in 1927 was a low table entirely she🦹athed in shagreen with a rectangular glass backlit tabletop. Using a sandblaster, the tabletop was engraved with a fish based on a drawing by the Hungarian sculptor Joseph Csaky. With a purity of form, the allure of the piece is dynamized by the curves between the shagreen skins and corner base with straight legs and a small central cylinder. Except for the backlit top by Joseph Csaky, the table seems to have a structure 🔜that is nearly identical to the one we are presenting as part of the Perelman Collection.

This petite aesthetic and precious gem, our green shagreen and stained wooden table precisely transcribes the decorator’s influenceꦡs and artistic preoccupations around 1927. It is emblematic of his taste for rich materials and simple designs that allowed him to create interiors where the historic and the modern stand together. The defining feature of this model, compared to Paul Cocteau’s table, is the green color of the shagreen, as well as the internal composition th🎉at allows for a strong harmony of colors. Marcel Coard was, in fact, one of the only decorators, alongside André Groult and Clement Rousseau who dyed shagreen, and even parchment in certain works, the color green. This effect stimulates the eye and offers both a lightness and style to his work. Not referenced in our monograph and never before seen on the market, this table is without doubt one of the decorator’s masterpieces.

Amélie Marcilhac