Furniture is the term used to describe a number of items used to support various human activities. There are a large variety of furniture items used around the world, including beds, tables, chairs, and various other objects. Furniture items can be made from a range of different materials, including wood, metal, plastic, or glass. While wooden furniture is by far the most popular type of furniture in use, during modern times there has been an expansion in the materials used for furniture design. For example, there are a number of glass furniture items in production around the world, including a number of glass tables of all shapes and sizes. Glass furniture has an appearance that is both classic and modern, and glass tables in particular have become one of the most well recognised and iconic examples of 20th century furniture design.

Perhaps the most famous example of modern glass furniture is the Noguchi table, which was first produced back in 1947. Henry Miller introduced the Noguchi table during this time, which was designed in the United States by industrial designer Isamu Noguchi. In many ways, the Noguchi table set the precedent for many of the other glass tables and furniture items that were to follow, featuring a solid wooden base and a heavy plate glass top. While glass tables have been around since the 1600s, advances in glass manufacture during the 20th century saw an increase in their production and popularity. The French developed a number of polishing and grinding techniques that gave birth to the first plate glass furniture in the 1600s, although it wasn't until the industrial revolution that plate glass became as strong and versatile as we know it today.

Apart from the Noguchi table and a number of other popular glass table designs, there have been few other glass furniture items manufactured during the last few centuries. This is mostly due to practical reasons, with glass still being a very fragile material when compared to things like wood and metal. However, it is possible to purchase other glass furniture items in some places, including glass dressers, glass storage containers, and glass chairs. Glass is also a widely popular material for interior furnishings such as lamps, light fittings, and other ornamentations.