Ward Bennett Vide

Ward Bennett created everything from interiors and furniture to textiles and flatware. The unsung New York City-born modernist designer drew on the work of Le Corbusier and Auguste Rodin, studied art with the likes of Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann and counted legendary American luxury house Tiffany & Co. among his clients. For decades, Bennett created and filled spaces that were elegant, minimalist and deeply appealed to everyone who laid eyes on them.

Bennett left home and school at the young age of 13. He found work in Manhattan’s Garment District, and within a few years, Bennett traveled to Europe on behalf of a clothing manufacturer to gather ideas for modern garments. He lived abroad as a young man, and when he returned to New York, during the early 1940s, he assisted fashion entrepreneur Hattie Carnegie as a window dresser.

Bennett would also go on to share a sculpture studio with artist Louise Nevelson. He ventured into the world of jewelry design, creating necklaces, bracelets and other pieces with Richard Pousette-Dart. The Whitney Museum of American Art exhibited his sculptures, and it wouldn’t be long before the Museum of Modern Art included Bennett’s personal adornments with accessories by the likes of Alexander Calder, Harry Bertoia and Anni Albers in its 1946 “Modern Handmade Jewelry” show.

Bennett didn’t take the plunge into interior design work until he was 30 years old — his inaugural project was an apartment in Manhattan and his clients were family members. He had no formal training in architecture or decorating — and would ultimately design a mere handful of houses in his life — so for his inviting leather office chairs, marble-topped tables and sleek storage cabinets, Bennett relied only on what he learned in the fashion world. Soon, every time he redecorated his own home — an elaborate apartment comprising former maids’ quarters in New York City’s magnificent Dakota building — it earned splashy coverage in the newspapers.

Bennett’s client list eventually included David Rockefeller and Chase Manhattan Bank, Tiffany & Co., Sasaki, Italian industrialist Gianni Agnelli, and others, and during the 1970s he became in-house designer for Brickel Associates, a role that would endure for more than two decades. His work is on permanent view at the Museum of Modern Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York.

On 1stDibs, find vintage Ward Bennett seating, decorative objects and more.

As decorative objects in your space, antique, new and vintage bowls and baskets make for a versatile addition to any corner of your living room, dining room or the console table in your foyer or entryway. Whether they’re positioned as a focal point for the family dining table or an accent on the shelving in your home office, or perhaps you’re just endeavoring to add minimalist ceramics throughout your home, an alluring art-glass centerpiece bowl or antique rustic fisherman’s basket is an easy way to elevate high-trafficked areas of your apartment or house.

Aside from the obvious functionality that a decorative bowl or basket brings to your kitchen, displaying such items behind the glass doors of a vintage storage cabinet or on your open kitchen shelving allows you to add a touch of personality and flair to the space, particularly if you’re accustomed to serving cocktails while you cook or if the kitchen is a common area for gathering and unpacking the events of the day.

As your bookcase is so much more than a place to, well, store books, adding a decorative bowl or basket — a mid-century modern work or an Art Nouveau–-era piece designed by French art-glass makers Daum — to the space where you keep your art monographs and coveted first editions can draw attention to your treasured library.

For the tranquil California coastal-style interiors you’ve worked so hard to create, fill a hand-carved wooden bowl on your console table with glass fishing floats or seashells, while a tall woven vessel by your front door can be populated with leafy green plants.

For anywhere and everywhere in your home, find a wide variety of antique or modern decorative baskets and bowls on 1stDibs today.