Coffee tables like this one were part of a new, informal way of living which developed in the USA and Europe during the 1920s and 30s. The manufacturer of this example, the Herman Miller Furniture Company, had started out in 1932 making reproduction furniture but, as a result of demand for a greater range of styles, began producing modern designs in the late 1930s. The company's founder, D. J. de Pree, initially dismissed the new bedroom suites as 'vocational school furniture', but was soon persuaded of their merit by the commercial success of the new lines. Gilbert Rohde, a former illustrator and photographer, designed a range of furniture for Herman Miller, much of which showed the influence of Surrealist artists like Miro in its biomorphic shapes.