“Bubble Lamp,”
designed 1947, produced 1958
George Nelson
(American, 1908–1986)
Howard Miller Company
Zeeland, Michigan
Metal frame and sprayed fiberglass
Lent by Jody and Dick Goisman

Coffee Table,
ca. 1944
Paul T. Frankl
(American, b. Austria, 1887–1958)
Laquered cork and mahogany
Purchase, by exchange M2003.91

Coffee Table Book: The Museum of Modern Art in New York City opened an exhibition called Organic Design in Home Furnishings in 1941, helping to propel the fashion for soft biomorphic curves.
As is implied by the phrase “coffee table book,” coffee tables were always intended to display various objects.

Armchair,
ca. 1955
Terrence Harold Robsjohn-Gibbings
(American, b. London, 1905–1976)
Widdicomb Furniture Company
(Grand Rapids, Michigan)
Fabric and wood
Lent by Jody and Dick Goisman

Bird Vase,
ca. 1954
Eugene Deutch
(American, b. Budapest 1904–1959)
Stoneware
Lent by Fern Simon/Arts 220,
Winnetka, Illinois. Now property of Milwaukee Art Museum, given by the American Heritage Society and the Layton Art Collection in honor of Glenn Adamson.

“Contour” Coffee Service,
1948–50
John von Koert
(American, 1912–1998)
Towle Silversmiths
Newburyport, Massachusetts
Silver and melamine
Lent by Jody and Dick Goisman

Paul Frankl’s amoeba-shaped coffee table is a stylish sculpture in its own right. Its playfully curvaceous top is covered with a thin, soft-looking layer of cork. Chicago potter Eugene Deutch made the large ceramic bowl seen here, which features a “biomorphic” shape stylistically related to the table’s top. Both can be considered part of a post-World War II craze for “organic design,” which was reflected in the forms and even the names of many commercial designs of the day, such as the “Contour” coffee set and “Bubble Lamp” seen here.