Interlubke Bar Cabinet

During the 1930s, a company called Interlübke was established by brothers Leo and Hans Lübke to produce affordable bedroom furniture such as dressers, beds and other items for homeowners in the founders' native Germany. While the brand has changed and expanded its offerings over the years, it is still committed to producing well-made handcrafted furnishings for the home. 

Cor is Latin for heart, and COR furniture exemplifies the qualities at the heart of exceptional design: practicality, comfort and style. The company's sofas, lounge chairs and coffee tables capture the essence of the best of mid-century modernism. Simple silhouettes, quality materials and function-first designs ensure that vintage COR furniture is still in high demand with collectors all over the world.

COR was founded in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany, in 1954 by Leo Lübke — in the name of his son, Helmut — and the Prince of Bentheim-Tecklenburg, a northern German county. Nearly a couple of decades prior, in 1937, a manufacturer of bedroom furniture called Interlübke was established by Leo and his brother Hans. The latter’s son Horst, who was managing partner from 1972, retired during the 1990s and his son Helmut Lübke joined Interlübke and shifted the brand’s focus toward modular furniture systems. During the 1980s, the Prince of Bentheim-Tecklenburg left COR and the Lübke family became its sole owner. In 2006, COR-Interlübke retail locations opened their doors.

COR, which was primarily focused on upholstered furniture from its earliest days, made its mark in 1959 with a sleek modular seating system consisting of five parts called Quinta, which was created by designer Michael Bayer (the first creative director at Interlübke). The upholstered line boasted clean, angular contours and appealed to the day's ever-broadening flexible interior design sensibilities. The same thinking is applied at Interlübke, where designers busied themselves during the 1960s with developing storage furniture that could be endlessly expanded upon. At COR, the Quinta remained in production until 1978. The success of the Quinta was followed by the 1964 Conseta system, which featured a sofa and other pieces of seating designed by Friedrich Wilhelm Möller. 

The following decades saw more successful collaborations at the Lübke family-run brands with designers like Peter Maly — who designed Memphis-style cabinets for Interlübke and postmodern seating in Pop art colors for COR — and Luigi Colani. The latter, a German industrial designer born Lutz Colani, created a range of gorgeous organically shaped Space Age seating for BASF and Fritz Hansen, serveware for Rosenthal and worked on automobile designs for Fiat. Colani designed the popular Orbis line for COR during the 1970s. 

In 2000, the Arthe sofa by Wulf Schneider was awarded the prestigious Red Dot Award from the North Rhine-Westphalia Design Centre.

COR is still owned and operated by the Lübke family’s parent company Gebrüder Lübke GmbH & Co. KG and continues to produce furniture at the Rheda-Wiedenbrück factory, sourcing leather from southern Germany and upholstery from Italy. COR partnered with Jehs+Laub, a renowned Stuttgart-based studio, in 2010. In 2022, Interlübke was sold to Domovari, a manufacturer of bathroom accessories and interiors.

Find a collection of Interlübke furniture on 1stDibs. 

Of all the antique and vintage case pieces and storage cabinets that have become popular in modern interiors over the years, dressers, credenzas and cabinets have long been home staples, perfect for routine storage or protection of personal items. 

In the mid-19th century, cabinetmakers would mimic styles originating in the Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI eras for their dressers, bookshelves and other structures, and, later, simpler, streamlined wood designs allowed these “case pieces” or “case goods” — any furnishing that is unupholstered and has some semblance of a storage component — to blend into the background of any interior. 

Mid-century modern furniture enthusiasts will cite the tall modular wall units crafted in teak and other sought-after woods of the era by the likes of George Nelson, Poul Cadovius and Finn Juhl. For these highly customizable furnishings, designers of the day delivered an alternative to big, heavy bookcases by considering the use of space — and, in particular, walls — in new and innovative ways. Mid-century modern credenzas, which, long and low, evolved from tables that were built as early as the 14th century in Italy, typically have no legs or very short legs and have grown in popularity as an alluring storage option over time. 

Although the name immediately invokes images of clothing, dressers were initially created in Europe for a much different purpose. This furnishing was initially a flat-surfaced, low-profile side table equipped with a few drawers — a common fixture used to dress and prepare meats in English kitchens throughout the Tudor period. The drawers served as perfect utensil storage. It wasn’t until the design made its way to North America that it became enlarged and equipped with enough space to hold clothing and cosmetics. The very history of storage case pieces is a testament to their versatility and well-earned place in any room. 

In the spirit of positioning your case goods center stage, decluttering can now be design-minded.

A contemporary case piece with open shelving and painted wood details can prove functional as a storage unit as easily as it can a room divider. Whether you’re seeking a playful sideboard made of colored glass and metals, an antique Italian hand-carved storage cabinet or a glass-door vitrine to store and show off your collectibles, there are options for you on 1stDibs.