Mexique low table

The Mexique table was created in 1952 for the students’ rooms of the Maison du Mexique at the Cité Universitaire Internationale in Paris. Its triangular shape with rounded corners was conceived in order to occupy as little space as possible in the room to facilitate movement between the armchair, bed and desk. This kind of table with tapered wooden legs and triangular table top was part of the en forme libre tables developed by Charlotte Perriand in 1938-1939. The triangular shape also allows more tables to be combined to form squares or rectangles, extending the area of use. The thick solid wood top exudes natural beauty and warmth and the profile of the top’s border is functional for the shape and size of the hand: “What is sweeter than touching a polished fir table top, sweet like the legs of a woman”, Charlotte Perriand noted in the Triennale di Milano catalogue in 1951. In 1952, Charlotte Perriand replaced the tapered legs with triangular sectioned legs in folded matt black sheet metal attached to the table top. Elegant and slender they were created to “give importance to the table top rather than its support” Charlotte wrote in 1950 in an article in the L’art d’Habiter. In 1956, Charlotte Perriand created a low version of the Mexique table for the Galerie Steph Simon, the renowned Parisian gallery where Charlotte Perriand and Jean Prouvé were the main protagonists. As a result Perriand created a family of tables which harmoniously meet the organisational requirements for the night, day and communal environments.