Janine Abraham & Dirk Jan Rol. Rattan And Iron Coffee Table, Circa 1950–60. Jean Royère, Matégot

Janine Abraham (1929–2005) and Dirk-Jan Rol (1929–2025), circa 1950–1960.
This is a highly original round coffee table with a wrought-iron frame, featuring two tiers: the upper one adorned with a band of woven rattan and a glass top in the center; the lower top, smaller in diameter, rests on a crossbar with 4 glides, all supported by a four-legged base.
Height: 57 cm, diameter: 69 cm, diameter of the upper glass top: 50 cm, and diameter of the lower top: 35 cm
In very good original condition; a few slight signs of oxidation on the base, but a lovely patina for a table that is nearly 80 years old.
Guaranteed original and authentic.

Janine Abraham and Dirk-Jan Rol were designers active from the 1950s to the 1970s, recognized worldwide for their rattan creations; primarily creating chairs and tables; in fact, there are several versions of coffee tables similar to this one, with various variations.

The daughter of teachers from Auvergne, Janine Abraham discovered at a very early age a passion for drawing and aspired to become an illustrator. On the advice of her father, she enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts. She stayed there for two years before deciding to pursue furniture design by enrolling at the École Camondo. After graduating at the top of her class in 1952, she completed internships with interior designer René-Jean Caillette, where she learned to work with rattan, and then with Maxime Old, her former professor of contemporary decorative arts. Introduced through journalist Lucien Veillon to Meubles TV, a contemporary furniture manufacturer in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine neighborhood, she began her career as an independent designer and created for this company a folding table known as 117 and the sideboard 102 with clean, simple lines. She then collaborated with Rougier—a company that still relied on artisanal craftsmanship and specialized in rattan—for which she designedan entire series of furniture (a bed, an armchair, a dressing table, etc.) that was presented at the Marseille Fair in 1954. She was hired by Jacques Dumond’s firm, where she met Dirk Jan Rol.

Dirk Jan Rol, originally from the Netherlands, came from a family of farmers. He received technical training in cabinetmaking before working for a cabinetmaking firm on various projects involving the fitting out of ocean liners and restaurants. In 1949, he decided to travel to Denmark to immerse himself in Scandinavian design, which was beginning to emerge. On the advice of friends and family, he left his native country for Paris and frequented the Faubourg Saint-Antoine neighborhood, rubbing shoulders with the small circle of furniture designers. Admitted directly into the second year at ENSAD on the basis of prior academic equivalence, he met Roger Fatus, with whom he became friends, and studied under Louis Sognot, a prominent member of the Union des Artistes Modernes (UAM). Immediately after graduating, he moved to Switzerland to join the firm of architect Marcel Lehmann in order to refine his knowledge in the field of architecture, then returned to Paris to work with architect Pierre-Otto Bauer, where he worked notably on American military hospitals. It was in 1955—thanks to his friend Roger Fatus—that he joined Jacques Dumond’s firm.

Janine Abraham and Dirk Jan Rol decided, from that point on, to become a couple both in life and at work, and would sign all their projects with both their names until the end of their careers. They founded their firm in 1957, having already exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs in 1956 thanks to the significant assistance of Jacques Dumond, who supported the young generation of designers entering the market.