Antique Art Deco Chrome Sail Yacht Lamp c.1920

Art Deco  or  Deco ,
is an influential  visual arts  design style which first appeared in France during the 1920s, flourished internationally during the 30s and 40s.

It is an  eclectic  style that combines traditional  craft  motifs  with  Machine Age imagery and materials. The style is often characterized by rich colors, bold  geometric  shapes, and lavish ornamentation.

Deco emerged from the  Interwar period  when rapid industrialization was transforming culture. One of its major attributes is an embrace of technology. This distinguishes Deco from the  organic  motifs  favored by its predecessor  Art Nouveau .

Historian  Bevis Hillier  defined Art Deco as "an assertively modern style ... [that] ran to symmetry rather than asymmetry, and to the rectilinear rather than the curvilinear; it responded to the demands of the machine and of new material ... [ and] the requirements of mass production ".

During its heyday Art Deco represented luxury, glamor, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress.