{"product_id":"a-mid-century-onyx-coffee-table-italian-circa-1950s","title":"Italian Coffee Table in Onyx:  Mid-Century, c.1950s","description":"\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eItalian designers in the 1950s discovered onyx the way Caravaggio discovered shadow. The stone - translucent, banded, almost lit from inside - became one of the signatures of the moderno interior. Carrara had supplied Italy with marble for centuries; onyx, harder to quarry and rarer in good slabs, arrived in workshops from Pakistan, Mexico, and the Italian Alps and was reserved for surfaces where its character could be seen. The pairing that emerged in the post-war decade was deliberate. A slab of onyx - soft, organic, geologic - set against a base of painted black iron and polished brass: hard, geometric, industrial. The contrast was the point. Earth against machine, with the brass softening the argument. The pieces tend to be small, often coffee tables or console tables, and were as common in Milanese apartments as in the rooms of the Roman dolce vita. The named designers - Ico Parisi, Carlo de Carli, Gio Ponti, Ignazio Gardella - produced versions. So did a great many workshops whose pieces stand on their own merits without a signature to confirm them.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eThis table is from that tradition. A rectangular slab of pale onyx - cream and grey, banded in cloud-like swirls - sits on a slim trestle base in black-painted iron, the feet capped in turned brass. The stone glows faintly under direct light; this is the quality that drew designers to it. The proportions are spare, the base nearly weightless against the weight of the stone.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eLight surface wear consistent with age. The brass has taken on a soft patina.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003eDimensions: H 0.44m × W 0.95m × D 0.53m\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal leading-[1.7]\"\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eEnquire about this piece via the form below. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Leopard","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48986887618787,"sku":null,"price":1400.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0752\/5230\/2051\/files\/Screenshot_2026-05-18_at_1.16.30_pm.png?v=1779074248","url":"https:\/\/theleopard.com.au\/products\/a-mid-century-onyx-coffee-table-italian-circa-1950s","provider":"The Leopard","version":"1.0","type":"link"}