Fifty years ago when all things French were the dernier cri, interior designers ardently talked about FFF: fine French furniture from the 18th century. Nowadays, FFF also might include Art Deco furniture produced in France between 1910 and 1939.

Wrought of exotic woods and distinctive materials, French Deco is inherently luxurious. Its svelte lines, geometric forms and elegant understatement have elicited feverish response in today's design-conscious marketplace. The delirium has sent prices bubbling upward with the effervescence of newly opened Dom Perignon.

The 40th anniversary retrospective in Paris of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, from which the term Art Deco is derived, initially helped rekindle interest, explains Gerard Widdershoven of Maison Gerard Ltd. in New York. “French Deco became chic again among an influential group of taste makers.” Then in 2003, the spectacular Art Deco exhibition organized by London's Victoria & Albert Museum, which traveled to Toronto, San Francisco and Boston, accelerated the growing fascination.

“I started dealing in French Deco in the early 1970s,” Widdershoven says. “There hardly was anything over $1,000. In 1974 or '75, I bought a Ruhlmann dining table for $700. I offered it for $3,000. It took three years to sell. Today that same table might be $600,000 or more.” Another example that Widdershoven mentions is a bow front amboyna cabinet with ivory inlay, circa 1925, by Jules Leleu that sold five years ago for $30,000. “Now I would have to ask between $85,000 and $100,000,” he says. Last May, in a show of African-inspired furniture, Maison Gerard exhibited a circa-1935 armoire of limned oak and wenge with bronze handles for $28,000. The surface of the piece, although smooth as satin, simulated rough-hewn native woodcraft.

“My personal feeling is that French Deco was undervalued for a long time,” enthuses Gary Calderwood of Calderwood Gallery in Philadelphia. “Now prices seem to appreciate weekly. Because it was done in limited quantities and as well-made as fine 18th-century furniture, it was expensive in its own time.” Calderwood cites Dominique as a maker “who did fabulous things.” A simply designed, but refined-looking circa-1925 Dominique grand piano made primarily of Brazilian rosewood was tagged $135,000 at the gallery. Tagged at $68,500, a 7-foot 1935 cabinet by Jacques Adnet of parchment and parchment-color lacquer was another harmonious composition.

The earliest French Deco furniture from 1910 onward will soon be a century old and “be truly antique,” notes Antonio Amado, co-owner, Valerio Antiques in Miami. Amado sees robust demand for pieces by Jean-Michel Frank. “The furniture he produced between 1932 and '40 is the foundation of a minimalist style very much in vogue today.” A simple, light-oak Frank console, circa 1940, at Valerio is $140,000.