Art Deco Centre Table

Material

Cast iron, 81.0 x 98.0 cm

Dating

app. 1930

About the artist

Edgar Brandt was born on 24 December 1880 in Paris to an Alsatian family. From 1894 to 1898 he studied at the École Nationale Professionnelle, a technical and craft-oriented school, in Vierzon. In 1898 he received the Brevet Technicien Supérieur diploma. In 1901/2 Brandt founded the Établissements Brandt where he produced jewellery and metal art objects in the Art Deco style and, from 1914, also weapons such as mortars for the French army. 1903 First participation in the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs. In 1904 he married Renée Largaud (1883-1963). In 1908 he received the 1st class gold medal at the Salon des Artistes Francais, of which he became a member. In 1914 he began the development and production of a 60 mm mortar for the French infantry.

In 1921 he was made a knight and five years later an Officer of the Legion of Honour. With the opening of the Galerie Edgar Brandt in 1925 and the Société des Etablissements Brandt, the production of art objects and weapons were more clearly separated. Brandt’s arms production in Châtillon-sous-Bagneux was nationalised by the socialist government in 1936. The Brandt brand was last used in the group for household machines and lives on to this day.

Edgar Brandt continued to be successful as an artist in the 1930s. In 1938 he travelled with his wife and son on the ship Normandie to the USA and Canada. In August 1942, just in time before the occupation of the rest of France on 11 November 1942, Brandt moved to Switzerland, where he settled at the location of his company Société Anonyme Constructions Mécaniques du Léman CML in Geneva. Edgar Brandt died in Geneva on 8 May 1960 after a long illness.