Mereth Oppenheim (Berlin, 1913- Basel, 1985) side table “Traccia”.
Inspiring muse of the Surrealist movement in Paris, Oppenheim conceived the table around 1938, in a period of great financial difficulties, due to the blocking of her father’s activities in Berlin by the National Socialist regime.
After attending the School of Applied Arts in Basel for two years, in 1939 she presented in Paris, together with Max Ernst and Lenor Fini, a series of ‘fantastic’ pieces of furniture, including the “Bird leg Table ”, with bronze base and elliptical top in wood and gold leaf.
After years of exclusively artisanal production, the piece entered the catalog of the “Ultramobile collection”, wanted by Dino Gavina for Simon, at the end of the 1960s.
With the acquisition of Simon-Gavina by Cassina, the table became part of catalog of the company, by which it is still made.
The elliptical top of this table has a shaped edge, imprinted with the footprints of a fantastic bird, the same one that inspired the feet made in cast bronze. The upper part of the top is in 24 carat pure gold leaf, the undertop is treated with gold-colored pigmented paints.