Trelaze Slate table with Square Top

Trelaze Slate Table

The square top of riven Anjou slate with naturally cleft surface and hand-dressed edges, raised on a cruciform base formed of two interlocking slate slabs, each of waisted outline with boldly concave sides, terminating in arched cut-out feet.

France, 20th Century

Note: The slate beds of Trélazé, on the eastern outskirts of Angers, were among the most important in Europe, worked from the Middle Ages until the closure of the last quarry in the early 21st century. The fine-grained, blue-black ardoise d'Anjou roofed the châteaux of the Loire and much of Paris, and its exceptional fissility allowed quarrymen, the perreyeurs, to split it into large, even sheets. Beyond roofing, the stone was worked into tables, benches, sinks and fireplace surrounds, frequently of simple slotted construction such as the cross-halved base seen here. The reductive, sculptural profile, with its pronounced waisting and arched feet, reflects this vernacular tradition while sitting naturally alongside mid-century French taste for honest, material-led design.