DESIGNED BY PIERRE DELBÉE OF MAISON JANSEN, PARIS, CIRCA 1965

Pierre Delbée was an accomplished draughtsman and the starting point for many of his designs was often a simple line drawing inspired by either the world of fantasy or by the magic of natural and scientific elements. The inspiration for the two tables offered here reflects Pierre Delbée's patrons interest in philosophical mathematics. The tables are conceived with acknowledgement to the laws of the golden ratio and combine elements from the geometry of Divine Proportion and the tools of arithmetic. Divine Proportion was studied closely by the Greek sculptor Phidias, hence it was given the name, Phi.
Delbée would seek inspiration for his designs from the many theoretical and philosophical books that lined the library walls of his own appartment in Avenue Foch, as well as those of his patrons. An obvious inspiration was the work of Lucas Pacioli (1445-1514). Pacioli, a Franciscan frair was successively professor of mathematics at Perugia, Rome, Naples, Pisa and Venice. He published Summa de Arithetica, Geomeria, Proportioni et Proportionalita in 1491 and Divina Proportioni in 1509.
A suite of five inlaid ebony doors designed by Pierre Delbée, circa 1957 for his own appartment, using similar mathematical and scientific elements inspired by Pacioli, were sold from the Collection Delbée-Jansen, Christie's Monaco, lot 476 (900,000 francs, exc. premium).