One of the most elegant and innovative 20th-century French furniture designers, Jacques Adnet created a simple, unadorned signature style that is both trim and vigorous. He began his career in the heyday of the Art Deco era, and in the 1950s, in association with Hermès, created chairs, lamps, desks and other pieces that employed slender metal frames clad in stitched saddle leather. With such furnishings, Adnet brought a fashion sensibility to design and decor that had not been seen since the 1920s prime of the great Paris couturier-decorator Paul Poiret.
Adnet was born in a provincial town in Burgundy, where he studied design before moving, along with his twin brother, Jean, to Paris to study at the École des Arts Décoratifs. After their graduation in the early 1920s, the brothers were hired to work in the decorative-arts atelier of the department store Galeries Lafayette, under the direction of Maurice Dufrêne, an Art Deco master who developed a singularly robust and opulent style. Both Adnets showed their work at the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes — the design fair from which the term Art Deco is derived.
In 1928, Jacques Adnet took charge of the struggling La Compagnie des Arts Français, a decorative-arts firm founded by Louis Süe and André Mare that created modern furnishings that bore traces of 18th-century styling. Adnet immediately took the company in a different direction. He developed a simple lithe and lean look that incorporated industrial materials such as metal and glass, along with exotic woods and finishes such as parchment and sharkskin.
Adnet’s furniture begs to be described in terms of personalities: charming faux-bamboo side tables, suave chrome lighting and urbane club chairs. His most noted pieces, which feature sleek metal frames wrapped in Hermès leather, have a character all their own — smooth, elegant and self-assured, they inhabit a room with the same wit and grace as Jean-Paul Belmondo and Catherine Deneuve.
Find vintage Jacques Adnet furniture for sale on 1stDibs.
Jacques Adnet Black Leather Floor Lamp, 1950s France
By Jacques Adnet
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Handsome black leather and brass floor lamp by French designer Jacques Adnet. Made in France in the 1950s. Thick stem which tapers at the top and bottom with a brass sleeve detail in the middle adjoining the two ends. Tripod leather...
Metal, Brass
Jacques Adnet Black Leather Floor Lamp, 1950s France
By Jacques Adnet
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Handsome black leather and brass floor lamp by French designer Jacques Adnet. Made in France in the 1950s. Completely wrapped in original black leather. Standing on brass ball feet. Sleek stem which features the signature Adnet bamboo design with leather and brass ring separators. Tripod base also wrapped in leather with brass rings fastening the feet to the stem. Signature Adnet contrast stitching down every leather seam. Excellent age and patina to black leather. New custom silk lamp shade...
Metal, Brass
1950s Adjustable Leather Floor Lamp in the Style of Jacques Adnet
By Jacques Adnet
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Handsome brass and leather floor lamp in the style of French designer Jacques Adnet. Circa 1950s. Beige leather wrapping the full length of lamp. Height adjustable brass rod runs ins...
Brass
Jacques Adnet Leather and Iron Floor Lamp
By Jacques Adnet
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Handsome iron and leather floor lamp by French designer Jacques Adnet. Circa 1950s. Saddle leather trim on the feet and stem of the lamp. Saddle leather strap extending from the adju...
Iron
Jacques Adnet Steel and Leather Floor Lamp, 1950s France
By Jacques Adnet
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Stunning steel floor lamp by French modernist designer Jacques Adnet. Made in France in the 1950s. Horseshoe shaped base with with thick steel frame. Thick saddle leather accents wrap around the frame in five locations; two at the base, and three going up the stem of the lamp. Heavy and substantial piece. New custom silk lampshade...
Metal, Brass
Jacques Adnet Floor Lamp in Saddle Leather, 1950s France
By Jacques Adnet
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Handsome saddle leather and metal floor lamp by French designer Jacques Adnet. Entirely wrapped in leather. Made in the 1950s. Tripod leather wrapped ba...
Metal, Brass
French Mid-Century Modern Hand Stitched Black Leather Floor Lamp Jacques Adnet
By Jacques Adnet
Located in New York, NY
Elegant, modern and timeless french Mid-Century Modern hand-stitched leather and brass floor lamp attributed to Jacques Adnet. The lamp has a exquisite, pure form with its solid bras...
Brass
Jacques Adnet Black Leather Potence Floor Lamp, France 1940's
By Jacques Adnet
Located in New York, NY
Exceptional reading lamp in stitched black leather by Jacques Adnet, this example is entirely covered, unlike others seen with the ratchet mechanism left in patinated metal—the all o...
Brass, Iron
Jacque Adnet Style Brass & Black Iron Floor Lamp France 1950 Mid-Century Modern
By Jacques Adnet
Located in Miami, FL
Superb Jacques Adnet Style Floor Lamp in Brass and black finished Iron on a decorative Tripod Base with Brass Glides. Comes with custom made Black & Gold Paper Drum Shade. Mid-Cen...
Brass, Iron
French Mid-Century Modern Hand-Stitched Leather Floor Lamp, Jacques Adnet
By Jacques Adnet
Located in New York, NY
Elegant French Mid-century hand-stitched dark green leather standing lamp attributed to Jacques Adnet. The piece is entirely covered in leather and has a stunning undulating organic ...
Jacques Adnet Black Leather Tripod Faux Bamboo Floor Lamp, 1950s
By Jacques Adnet
Located in New York, NY
Jacques Adnet faux bamboo tripod floor lamp wrapped in original black saddle-stitched leather, France, 1950s. This chic floor lamp comes with a white empire parchment paper shade. T...
Brass
Jacques Adnet Leather and Metal Floor Lamp France - 1950s
By Jacques Adnet
Located in Berlin, DE
Jacques Adnet Metal Floor Lamp with beautiful leather details, France - 1950s. The measurements given apply to the lamp without the shade. Please note: Lamp should be fitted profess...
Metal
