Desk

The Parisian architect Robert Mallet-Stevens, nephew of the Belgian banker Adolphe Stoclet, was trained at the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture in the French capital. In 1923 he designed film sets for a major production of the time – Marcel L’Herbier’s L’Inhumaine – with geometric facades, sharp edges, recesses and simple volumes; these stylistic features are also found in his furniture. The furniture in his agency’s office on Rue Mallet-Stevens in Paris includes some of the first examples of metal pieces painted with synthetic lacquer.