Jean Table

Named for Jean Badovici, the architect and close companion of Eileen Gray, the Jean table was a fixture in their collaborative summer villa E 1027 on the French Riviera. Gray described it with characteristic directness: every room had one, ready to serve as a writing surface, a side table, or, when several were drawn together and unfolded, a dining table of surprising generosity.

The design is an exercise in considered economy. A chrome-plated tubular steel frame gives the piece its slender, graphic presence. The tabletop folds flat for repositioning and is laminated in white HPL with a solid beech edging, a pairing that balances industrial discipline with warmth at the hand. Height-adjustable metal gliders allow the table to adapt to the surface beneath it without compromising its silhouette.

ClassiCon's reissue holds closely to Gray's original intent: a piece of furniture that refuses to be fixed, that moves through a space as its inhabitants do, and that asks nothing more of a room than the room is willing to give.