Ask Jay Osgerby to name which skills his longtime collaborator, Edward Barber, brings to their design partnership, and the shorter, chattier half of BarberOsgerby will mince no words. "Ed's strength? Pulling girls," Osgerby deadpans, taking a sip of his latte. The London-based pair are having a late breakfast at a Tribeca café, in town for the New York debut of the two stunning pieces — a Murano-glass reading table and a Britannia-silver candelabra — they created for the newly formed contemporary-furniture company Meta.

"No, I can't say that," the 39-year-old Osgerby reconsiders. He tugs at his baggy V-neck sweater and looks over at the willowy Barber, 39, dressed in a pressed tan shirt, dark jeans, and white bucks. "I don't think you've got any strengths," he tells him.

"Jay's good with clients," Barber admits, starting to chuckle. "He talks to them, while I try to avoid them as much as possible." He and Osgerby erupt into laughter.

"We have different types of clients we get on with," Osgerby explains, all joking suddenly aside, "but these days we're not asking to do things, we are being asked." He stops. "Though I still don't know what Ed's strengths are."

"Bastard," Barber mutters, shaking his head.

Though Barber and Osgerby may seem more like heirs to such British comedy legends as Morecambe and Wise than to, say, Charles and Ray Eames, don't be fooled. Since forming their eponymous studio in 1996, the pair have quietly built a reputation for sensuous, sculptural objects that blend craft and cutting-edge technology. Consider their Zero-In table for Established & Sons, which employs auto-industry techniques in its construction. Or their graceful Tab desk lamp for Flos, which contains a ceramic — rather than metal — reflector inside its folded head, making the light warmer and softer. These pieces have earned them such plaudits as the designation Royal Designers for Industry, a title held by only 119 living Britons. Their work has also won them the admiration of manufacturers. "They pay a huge amount of attention to the smallest of details," Established & Sons' CEO, Alasdhair Willis, says. "I think it is in those details that we see their talent as designers shine through."

Barber and Osgerby met in 1992 at London's Royal College of Art. While still finishing their architecture degrees, they began collaborating on external projects. The pace was so frenetic that they took a flat together so they could work around the clock. "We became so close that we almost didn't have to discuss things," Osgerby says. "Ed would say, 'What about that?' 'Yes, I like it,' and that was it."

In 1997, the Italian design giant Guilio Cappellini saw their plywood Loop Table at a trade fair and put it into production; more work followed for Magis, Coca-Cola, Authentics, and Levi's. In 2001, the duo was able to spin off an interiors practice, Universal Design Studio, which has gone on to create retail spaces for Stella McCartney and H & M as well as to stage exhibits, including this fall's "Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970" at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.