Jean-Michel Frank

Exhibited by Galerie Lefebvre

Material Solid oak entirely covered in the original ivory color shagreen

Dimensions 17.7 × 16.5 × 16.5 in

Status Not Vetted

About the Work

The Pagoda table (otherwise known as Queue d’Oiseau or bird’s tail) is Jean-Michel Frank’s iconic model. Reinterpreted in many variations, from simple oak to parchment to mica, for the famous jazz musician Cole Porter, it is the notable shagreen variant which is the rarest. The first shagreen table was made for the notorious American philanthropist and French Art Deco collector, Templeton Crocker, placed in his glitzy San Francisco penthouse. The second table can be seen in a photograph taken in 1935, from the inauguration of Jean-Michel Frank’s boutique on rue Saint Honoré in Paris (Giacometti Foundation Archives). These are the only two shagreen tables we were able to trace in vintage documentation, and the only two to have been localized today. Ours from YSL and another in Jacques Grange’s collection.

In the 1970’s, pioneering Art Deco connoisseur Yves Saint-Laurent began to complement his impressive art collection with some of the most important and beautiful 1920’s and 1930’s furniture pieces. Famous today, designers such as Eileen Gray, Jean Dunand, Gustave Miklos, and Eugene Printz were at the time known only to a few lucky initiates, among them Andy Warhol, Mr. Chow and Karl Lagerfeld. Yves Saint-Laurent and the Lalanne husband-and-wife team were at the heart of this group of early collectors where pieces by Jean-Michel Frank were some of the most prized. Opulent yet understated, our shagreen table from Yves Saint-Laurent’s infamous rue Babylon apartment is a perfect example of this aesthetic.

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