Rare 'Tao' Table by Philip and Kelvin LaVerne, 1960s

A rare 'Tao' table by Philip and Kelvin LaVerne, designed in the 1960s, where surface, sculpture, and narrative collapse into a single ceremonial object.

Cast in patinated bronze and pewter, and finished with hand-painted enamels, the table’s circular top becomes a continuous illustrated field rather than a decorative surface. The engraved scene unfolds like a procession—figures, architectural fragments, and landscape elements emerging and dissolving within layers of oxidized metal. The patina is not uniform but atmospheric, shifting between muted greens, warm browns, and softened metallic highlights, as though time itself has been embedded into the surface.

The imagery, characteristic of Philip and Kelvin LaVerne’s work, carries a meditative density: human figures arranged in ritualized movement, structures that feel both historical and imagined, and negative space that behaves like air moving through a narrative rather than around it. The engraved and painted details sit beneath the surface sheen, never fully asserting themselves, requiring light and proximity to reveal their depth.

Marked and signed, the piece carries the authority of authorship but also the intimacy of hand-finished work—each surface variation a record of process rather than repetition.

Philip and Kelvin LaVerne were an influential American father-and-son design duo whose sculptural furniture redefined the boundaries between fine art and functional design. Working from their New York studio beginning in the 1950s, they developed a proprietary metalworking process that combined bronze casting, engraving, acid etching, enameling, and carefully controlled patination to create richly textured surfaces unlike any other.

 Their signature technique—reportedly involving the burial of bronze and pewter panels in a closely guarded mixture of soil and chemicals—produced layered finishes that could never be precisely replicated, a workshop secret they never revealed.

Drawing inspiration from ancient civilizations, mythology, Chinese decorative arts, and Renaissance sculpture, the LaVernes approached every table, cabinet, and screen as a narrative work of art rather than a purely functional object. Philip's background as a classically trained painter and Kelvin's education in metalwork and furniture design at Parsons informed a body of work that fused sculpture, painting, and craftsmanship into a singular artistic vision.

Today, their pieces are celebrated as icons of twentieth-century American studio furniture, prized for their extraordinary technical innovation, historical references, and enduring sculptural presence.