Cité table, 1930
The Cité table was one of the Ateliers Jean Prouvé’s longest-lasting models, from the original version for the Cité Universitaire, Nancy, in the early 1930s through the allmetal Tropique model of the 1950s.Originally intended for educational and hospital contexts, it came into its own in the domestic context as a desk or extra table. Its stable monobloc base meant it could be readily adapted to larger dimensions, and certain variants, with or without crossmembers, lent themselves to the making of large refectory and study tables. Dating from 1930, when sixty examples were made for the Cité Universitaire, Nancy, the basic model had a bent steel frame comprising two open-channel uprights joined by a sheet metal brace and set on two square-tube legs. A light frame supported an oak top holding a metal drawer with a cast aluminum handle. Several versions were made using this system, among them the table no. 20, produced in small batches during the 1930s. The uprights were closed-section, the (optional) brace was of square tube, and the solid wood or plywood top was set on metal brackets. The feet on some models—notably certain sanatorium tables—had a thinned out profile. Production went ahead more or less unchanged after the War, with the TC 11 model appearing in two versions from 1951 onwards: the Cité no. 500 table with an oak or lacquered aluminum top, and the demountable Tropique no. 501 table, whose round tube brace was fixed to the uprights with threaded rod. In 1951, over 150 Cité tables came out of the Ateliers Jean Prouvé, the great majority of them all-metal.