The most expensive table of this kind ever sold at auction is a glass-topped François-Xavier Lalanne elephant table that made $11.6 million, fees included, at Sotheby’s in New York on 18 November 2024. The most expensive true dining table we can document is a one-off by the Italian architect Carlo Mollino, which sold for about $6.2 million at Sotheby’s New York in late 2020. This list ranks ten of the highest auction prices for dining and dining-height tables, as of October 2026, and flags the entries that are closer to sculpture than furniture.
The old version of this page listed showroom tables priced from $37,500 up to $200,000. Auction prices have long since left those behind: even tenth place below is a table that sold for about $40,000.
| Rank | Table | Price (USD) | Sale date | Sold at |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lalanne elephant and branch table (glass top) | $11.6 million | November 2024 | Sotheby’s, New York |
| 2 | Carlo Mollino dining table, 1949 | $6.2 million | Late 2020 | Sotheby’s, New York |
| 3 | Jean Prouvé Trapèze table | About $2.0 million (€1.92 million) | June 2022 | Drouot, Paris |
| 4 | Peder Moos dining table, 1952 | About $920,000 (£602,500) | October 2015 | Phillips |
| 5 | George Nakashima Arlyn table, 1988 | $822,400 | December 2006 | Sotheby’s |
| 6 | Diego Giacometti Berceau table, model with cats | About $650,000 (SEK 6.3 million) | Spring 2026 | Stockholms Auktionsverk |
| 7 | Mira Nakashima walnut dining table with Conoid chairs | About $150,000 | Date not stated | Freeman’s |
| 8 | Nakashima Conoid table, 1973 (George) | $76,200 | January 2025 | Rago |
| 9 | Mouseman six-metre refectory table, 1937 | About $55,000 (£42,000) | November 2025 | Hawleys |
| 10 | Nakashima Conoid table, 1965 (George) | $40,640 | May 2025 | Rago |
1. Lalanne elephant and branch table: $11.6 million
François-Xavier Lalanne’s “Troupeau d’Éléphants dans les Arbres” is a glass-topped table carried on bronze elephants and branches, made in editions. It is sculpture you can put a plate on, so we include it with that caveat. One edition came from the estate of Sydell Miller, who commissioned it for her Palm Beach home, and it hammered at $10 million against a $4 to $6 million estimate, reaching $11.6 million with fees. An earlier edition of the same model made $6.63 million at Christie’s in November 2021. We take the 2024 result including fees.
2. Carlo Mollino dining table: $6.2 million
Mollino designed this table in 1949 and Appelli and Varesio built it in Turin. It was made for a travelling exhibition of Italian design that opened at the Brooklyn Museum in 1950, and it came to Sotheby’s from the museum. The estimate was $2 to $3 million. A ten-minute bidding fight sent it past double that and made it a record for Italian design at auction. An earlier Mollino table made $3.82 million at Christie’s in 2005, so this one nearly doubled that. Sources give slightly different dates for the 2020 sale, so we say late 2020.
3. Jean Prouvé Trapèze table: about $2.0 million
Prouvé built his metal-and-wood Trapèze tables for the university campus at Antony outside Paris, and they were made for a canteen, not a dining room. In June 2022 a pair sold at Drouot for €1,922,000 each, a French and European record for the designer. An earlier Trapèze made €1.24 million at Artcurial in May 2014. We converted the euros at roughly 1.04 dollars, so the dollar figure is our estimate.
4. Peder Moos dining table: about $920,000
This is a true one-off. The Danish designer Peder Moos drew it in 1952 for the Villa Aubertin in Nakskov, a table on thin, curved legs braced by wing-shaped supports. It sold for £602,500 at Phillips in October 2015, over four times the estimate, a record for Nordic design. The dollar figure is our conversion at the 2015 rate.
5. George Nakashima Arlyn table: $822,400
Nakashima’s masterwork from 1988 uses redwood, American black walnut, East Indian laurel and madrona burl. It came from a collector couple’s holdings, was estimated at $300,000 to $500,000, and sold at Sotheby’s on 15 December 2006. The auction report calls it a table and does not say it is a dining table, so we rank it as a large wood table in the dining format.
6. Diego Giacometti Berceau table: about $650,000
In spring 2026 the Swedish house Stockholms Auktionsverk sold Giacometti’s “Berceau, table, modèle aux chats” for SEK 6.3 million, the most it has ever got for a piece of 20th-century furniture. We do not know whether it was meant for dining, so treat it as a table in the broader sense. The dollar number is our rough conversion.
7. Mira Nakashima walnut dining table with chairs: about $150,000
George Nakashima’s daughter continued his workshop. A claro walnut dining table with Conoid chairs by her sold at Freeman’s for about $150,000, which the sale reported as a record for her. The sale date and lot were not stated in the report we found.
8. Nakashima, 1973 Conoid: $76,200
A 1973 table in Persian and American black walnut with rosewood, estimated at $30,000 to $50,000, sold at Rago on 16 January 2025. It is the highest Nakashima dining-height result we found from the last two years.
9. Mouseman six-metre refectory table: about $55,000
Robert “Mouseman” Thompson’s carved oak furniture mostly sells at tens of thousands. In November 2025 a six-metre table made in 1937 for a Leeds prep school sold for £42,000 at Hawleys in Beverley, a record for any piece by the Mouseman workshop. A second, five-metre table sold the same weekend; the pair together made £78,000. The £42,000 is the hammer price, and the buyer’s premium was extra.
10. Nakashima, 1965 Conoid: $40,640
A 1965 table in black cherry and rosewood beat its $20,000 to $30,000 estimate at Rago on 15 May 2025. It closes the list as a clean, documented example of what a good Nakashima costs today.
Records set in 2025 and 2026
- November 2025: the Mouseman record at Hawleys, £42,000 for a 1937 school refectory table.
- Spring 2026: a Diego Giacometti table at SEK 6.3 million at Stockholms Auktionsverk, the Swedish house’s record for 20th-century furniture.
- January 2025: a 1973 Nakashima Conoid table at $76,200 at Rago.
We found no new dining table record above the Lalanne or Mollino results in 2025 or 2026.
What drives these prices
- One-offs win. The Mollino and Moos tables were unique pieces, not models from a catalogue.
- Museum and collector provenance adds a premium. The Brooklyn Museum link did more for the Mollino than any material.
- Makers with a close-knit market, Nakashima and Prouvé especially, see records fall one after another.
- Size is not the point. The largest tables on this list, the Mouseman refectory pieces, sit near the bottom.
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FAQ
What is the most expensive dining table ever sold?
A unique 1949 Carlo Mollino dining table sold for about $6.2 million at Sotheby’s New York in late 2020. A glass-topped Lalanne elephant table made $11.6 million in 2024, but it is a sculptural table.
What is the most expensive Nakashima table?
The Arlyn table sold for $822,400 at Sotheby’s in December 2006. Recent dining-height Nakashima tables typically sell for tens of thousands of dollars.
Which designer has the most expensive dining table at auction?
Carlo Mollino for a true dining table. For tables in general, François-Xavier Lalanne.
What is the cheapest table on this list?
A 1965 Nakashima Conoid in black cherry and rosewood, which sold for $40,640 at Rago in May 2025.
How much should I expect to pay for a designer dining table?
Good signed pieces by makers such as Nakashima generally land from about $20,000 to $80,000 at auction. Museum-level or one-off designs go into the hundreds of thousands and above.
How we put this list together
We ranked tables by verified auction price, using results from the auction houses compiled in an internal valuation model. Dollar figures for euros, pounds and kronor are our conversions, and prices are approximate and change over time.
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Last updated: October 2026.
