Arkhe Console
2010s Turkish Modern Console Tables
Travertine
2010s Turkish Modern Wall Mirrors
Metal
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21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Wall Mirrors
Mirror
20th Century Belgian Neoclassical Revival Console Tables
Mahogany
Late 20th Century End Tables
Wood
2010s American Organic Modern Console Tables
Wood
Mid-20th Century American Side Tables
Mid-20th Century Argentine Art Deco Console Tables
Wood
Vintage 1950s Organic Modern Console Tables
Wood, Teak, Reclaimed Wood
2010s Italian Modern Console Tables
Marble
21st Century and Contemporary French Art Deco Side Tables
Brass
20th Century Spanish Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Bamboo, Wicker, Cane, Rattan, Mirror
Antique 18th Century Spanish Baroque Tables
Walnut
2010s American Modern Dining Room Tables
Glass, Mirror
Antique Early 1900s Scottish Edwardian Wall Mirrors
Mirror, Oak
Antique 19th Century English George III Wall Mirrors
Giltwood
Early 20th Century British Arts and Crafts Stools
Oak
Antique 19th Century Italian Louis XV Wall Mirrors
Mirror, Giltwood
A Close Look at modern Furniture
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.