Pair of Italian 1940s Parchment Nightstands with Floating Glass Shelf

The pair of nightstands is organised on two staggered levels: a squared case, clad on the front in pale parchment, and above it a glass shelf that projects outward on a cantilever, supported by two wooden arms extending from the back of the piece. The case rests on four tapered legs, slightly splayed and capped with brass ferrules. The front is divided into a drawer at the top and two small doors below. The interplay between the floating shelf, the pale volume of the parchment and the slender legs gives the piece a light line, lifted off the ground.

The case is in dark polished wood of a warm tone, with the upper shelf and the legs in the same timber. The drawer and the two doors are clad in stretched parchment, with the variable ivory tones characteristic of the material. The handles are in brass: a bridge pull on the drawer and two tapered grips on the doors. The upper shelf is a slab of thick glass, bevelled at the edges and marked Vitrex in one corner, resting on the two cantilevered arms. The leg ferrules are also in brass. The construction clearly separates the parchment parts, framed by the wood, from the supporting structure.

The nightstands are of Italian production from the 1940s. The use of parchment to clad the fronts, combined with dark polished wood and brass details, belongs to the taste of Italian furniture of that decade, in continuity with the Déco season and in transition towards the lighter lines of the post-war years. The glass tops carry the Vitrex mark, an Italian maker of glass and crystal for furnishings active between the 1940s and the 1960s, supplier of panes, shelves and components for furniture of the period. The cantilevered shelf and the tapered legs with metal ferrules anticipate the vocabulary that would establish itself in the 1950s. The piece itself is unsigned: the dating rests on the formal choices, the materials and the mark on the glass.

The nightstands have undergone a conservative restoration. The parchment retains its original tones and patinas, unevenly distributed across the drawer and doors; the wood has been cleaned and re-polished, with wear consistent with age; the brass handles and ferrules show their natural patina. The glass shelves are intact. Drawers and doors are in working order.

Dimensions (each): Height 60 cm (23.6 in) x Width 67 cm (26.4 in) x Depth 33 cm (13.0 in)