Early Transforming Furniture: Richard Neutra's Camel Table

In the 1930s Richard Neutra, the Austrian architect who'd made his home in California, designed an early example of flexible-use furniture. Neutra conceived of a table that could transform from dining height to coffee table height, using a simple mechanism in the legs:

Neutra made no secret of his inspiration for the design:

He had it prototyped in 1940, and in 1951 designed a steel-leg version for a client.

The table never went into mass production, but was occasionally produced for clients; occasionally these pop up on auction sites.