Edward Wormley for Dunbar Model 3374 Square Cocktail Table
About the Item
- Creator:Dunbar Furniture (Manufacturer),Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)Width: 34 in (86.36 cm)Depth: 34 in (86.36 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:Late 1950s-Early 1960s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Restored. Ready to place.
- Seller Location:Hanover, MA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU886613848161
Edward Wormley
As the longtime director of design for the Dunbar furniture company, Edward Wormley was, along with such peers as George Nelson at Herman Miller Inc., and Florence Knoll of Knoll Inc., one of the leading forces in bringing modern design into American homes in the mid-20th century. Not an axiomatic modernist, Wormley deeply appreciated traditional design, and consequently his vintage seating, storage cabinets, bar carts and other work has an understated warmth and a timeless quality that sets it apart from other furnishings of the era.
Wormley was born in rural Illinois and as a teenager took correspondence courses from the New York School of Interior Design. He later attended the Art Institute of Chicago but ran out of money for tuition before he could graduate. Marshall Field hired Wormley in 1930 to design a line of reproduction 18th-century English furniture; the following year he was hired by the Indiana-based Dunbar, where he quickly distinguished himself. It was a good match.
Dunbar was an unusual firm: it did not use automated production systems; its pieces were mostly hand-constructed. For his part, Wormley did not use metal as a major component of furniture; he liked craft elements such as caned seatbacks, tambour drawers, or the woven-wood cabinet fronts seen on his Model 5666 sideboard of 1956. He designed two lines for Dunbar each year — one traditional, one modern — until 1944, by which time the contemporary pieces had become the clear best sellers.
Many of Wormley’s signature pieces — chairs, sofas, tables and more — are modern interpretations of traditional forms. His 1946 Riemerschmid Chair — an example is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art — recapitulates a late 19th-century German design. The long, slender finials of his Model 5580 dining chairs are based on those of Louis XVI chairs; his Listen-to-Me Chaise (1948) has a gentle Rococo curve; the “Precedent” line that Wormley designed for Drexel Furniture in 1947 is a simplified, pared-down take on muscular Georgian furniture. But he could invent new forms, as his Magazine table of 1953, with its bent wood pockets, and his tiered Magazine Tree (1947), both show. And Wormley kept his eye on design currents, creating a series of tables with tops that incorporate tiles and roundels by the great modern ceramicists Otto and Gertrud Natzler.
As the vintage items on 1stDibs demonstrate, Edward Wormley conceived of a subdued sort of modernism, designing furniture that fits into any decorating scheme and does not shout for attention.
Dunbar Furniture
Revered for its handcrafted and highly collectible mid-century modern sofas, coffee tables and other furnishings, Dunbar Furniture was founded in 1910 in Berne, Indiana, but it didn’t gain widespread recognition until the ’30s, following the introduction of its president to a designer who would leave an indelible mark on the company’s legacy: Edward Wormley.
After a stint at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Oswego, Illinois-born Wormley worked as an interior designer for Marshall Field’s before joining Dunbar in 1931. Initially focused on developing the company’s cheapest furniture line, which could be bought with soap coupons, he was soon leading Dunbar Furniture into a new era of residential furniture for modern American homes. He would serve as the company’s design director for over three decades, designing about 150 pieces each year.
During that time, he oversaw the production of designs in a wide range of materials, with influences ranging from Scandinavian modernism to Art Deco. There were modern upholstery pieces, like swiveling lounge chairs and low-slung sofas, and experiments with textural wood on bar carts and cabinets as well as minimal, sculptural tables and functional office furniture. A passionate collector of Tiffany Studios lamps, Wormley used their glass tiles in Dunbar tables in 1956. He also worked on the reproduction of pieces by designers such as Jean-Michel Frank and Richard Riemerschmid.
One standout Dunbar Furniture collection was Janus, introduced in the 1960s, with Austrian-born ceramicists Otto and Gertrud Natzler. These pieces see the Natzlers’ uniquely artful ceramic tiles set into several styles of wooden tables. They remain some of the most sought-after mid-century modern Dunbar pieces on the vintage market today. During the peak of his design career and, indeed, the height of Dunbar Furniture’s history, Wormley amassed a whopping 30 Good Design awards between 1950 and 1955 through the “Good Design” exhibition, hosted by the Chicago Merchandise Mart and the Museum of Modern Art. Dunbar today produces a limited selection of archival Wormley designs, but many sales of original Dunbar pieces are through the resale market.
Find a collection of authentic vintage Dunbar Furniture today on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Hanover, MA
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Dunbar Snack Table Floor Lamp, Model 4856, Designed by Edward WormleyBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Hanover, MARare Dunbar floor lamp/snack table combo, Model 4856, designed by Edward Wormley circa 1948. Original Dunbar tag on underside. Slender tapered walnut leg and lamp stem. Round top, 25...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Large Square Cocktail TableLocated in Hanover, MALarge square coffee table in brass and twisted forged steel with X base cross stretcher and inset black glass top.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsSteel, Iron, Brass
- Midcentury Curved Sofa in the Style of Edward Wormley for ReupholsteringBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Hanover, MAMidcentury curved sofa (front and back) with half track arms, on six distinctive V-form walnut stained legs artfully positioned on a rakish angle, circa 1960. Two split notched edge ...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
- Ziggurat Brass Square Cocktail TableLocated in Hanover, MAZiggurat brass clad cocktail table in stepped inverted pyramid design with 0,75 inch thick glass top, USA circa 1983. Interior well clad in mirror polished stainless steel. Glamorous...Category
Vintage 1980s American Hollywood Regency Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass, Stainless Steel
- Designer Square Cocktail Table Padauk and Stainless SteelLocated in Hanover, MAVintage 1980s cocktail table with high gloss polished bookmatched Padauk square top on a brushed stainless steel base comprised of square legs and double arched stretchers embellishe...Category
Vintage 1980s American Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Paul Mayen for Habitat Aluminum Cocktail TableBy Paul MayenLocated in Hanover, MAAs spare and cool as it gets, two slabs of plate aluminium overlain in an architectural X- or cruci- form......supporting a 36 inch square slab of glass .Category
Vintage 1970s British Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
- Dunbar Walnut Coffee or End Table Model # 3374 by Edward WormleyBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Aramits, Nouvelle-AquitaineElegant Dunbar walnut coffee or end table with triangle legs and black polished laminate top, model # 3374 designed by Edward Wormley. Original sticker with serial number under the...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsLaminate, Walnut
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Coffee Table, Model 5309By Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in San Francisco, CARare Edward Wormley design coffee table model 5309 for Dunbar Furniture. Iconic mid-century modern coffee table made by the highest quality American manufacturer's from the period. E...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Trapezoid Top Cocktail TableBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA beautiful design by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Simple yet interesting with unique trapezoid top and 4 legs with brass caps.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Edward Wormley Cocktail Table, Dunbar 1950sBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Dallas, TXCocktail table designed by Edward Wormley and manufactured by Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Model 5309 Coffee Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Denton, TXModel 5309 rare coffee table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Combination of rosewood and brass with the original glass top.Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Side Table Model 5309 by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Rovereta, SMModel 5309 rare coffee table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Combination of Wood and brass with the original glass top.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass