Historical Significance
The Noguchi coffee table has one of the more interesting backstories in modern furniture. It was designed in 1944 by Isamu Noguchi, a Japanese-American artist who spent most of his career making sculpture rather than furniture. Herman Miller put it into production in 1947, and it quickly became one of the defining pieces of mid-century modern design. It was discontinued in the 1970s, then brought back by popular demand in 1984, and it’s been in continuous production ever since through Vitra in Europe and Herman Miller in the US.
Noguchi himself often said it was the best piece of furniture he ever made, which is quite the endorsement from someone whose sculptures sit in museums around the world. More than eighty years on, the design still feels current. That’s the mark of something genuinely timeless, and it’s exactly why we wanted to bring our own take on it into the collection.
