Vintage Bar Harbor Willow Wicker
View Similar Items
Vintage Bar Harbor Willow Wicker
About the Item
- Creator:Heywood-Wakefield Co. (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 40 in (101.6 cm)Width: 70 in (177.8 cm)Depth: 28 in (71.12 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 3
- Materials and Techniques:Willow,Hand-Woven
- Place of Origin:
- Period:1910-1919
- Date of Manufacture:c. 1920
- Condition:Refinished. Wear consistent with age and use. These pieces have been cleaned and sealed.
- Seller Location:Old Saybrook, CT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU923935360712
Heywood-Wakefield Co.
Created by the 19th-century merger of two venerable Massachusetts furniture makers, Heywood-Wakefield was one of the largest and most successful companies of its kind in the United States. In its early decades, the firm thrived by crafting affordable and hugely popular wicker pieces in traditional and historical styles. In the midst of the Great Depression, however, Heywood-Wakefield reinvented itself, creating instead the first modernist furnishings to be widely embraced in American households.
The Heywoods were five brothers from Gardner, Massachusetts, who in 1826 started a business making wooden chairs and tables in their family shed. As their company grew, they moved into the manufacture of furniture with steam-bent wood frames and cane or wicker seats, backs and sides. In 1897, they joined forces with a local rival, the Wakefield Rattan Company, whose founder, Cyrus Wakefield, got his start on the Boston docks buying up lots of discarded rattan, which was used as cushioning material in the holds of cargo ships, and transforming it into furnishings. The conglomerate initially did well with both early American style and woven pieces, but taste began to change at the turn of the 20th century and wicker furniture fell out of fashion. In 1930, the company brought in designer Gilbert Rohde, a champion of the Art Deco style. Before departing in 1932 to lead the Michigan furniture maker Herman Miller, Rohde created well-received sleek, bentwood chairs for Heywood-Wakefield and gave its colonial pieces a touch of Art Deco flair.
Committed to the new style, Heywood-Wakefield commissioned work from an assortment of like-minded designers, including Alfons Bach, W. Joseph Carr, Leo Jiranek and Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, a Russian nobleman who had made his name in Europe creating elegant automotive body designs.
In 1936, the company introduced its “Streamline Modern” group of furnishings, presenting a look that would define the company’s wares for another 30 years. The buoyantly bright, blond wood — maple initially, later birch — came in finishes such as amber “wheat” and pink-tinted “champagne.” The forms of the pieces, at once light and substantial, with softly contoured edges and little adornment beyond artful drawer pulls and knobs, were featured in lines with names such as “Sculptura,” “Crescendo” and “Coronet.” It was forward-looking, optimistic and built to last — a draw for middle-class buyers in the Baby Boom years.
By the 1960s, Heywood-Wakefield began to be seen as “your parents’ furniture.” The last of the Modern line came out in 1966; the company went bankrupt in 1981. The truly sturdy pieces have weathered the intervening years well, having found a new audience for their blithe and happy sophistication.
Find a collection of vintage Heywood-Wakefield desks, chairs, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- Bar Harbor Style Wicker, Loveseat and Matching RockerBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Nashua, NHA matching Bar Harbor Style Love Seat and matching Rocking Chair from a Rhode Island Estate, American ,C. 1910. They are presumably made by The Heywood WakefieldCompany based on the...Category
Early 20th Century American Other Patio and Garden Furniture
MaterialsUpholstery, Wicker, Reed, Wood
- Antique Wicker Oversized Bar Harbor Style Wing ChairBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Nashua, NHA rare oversized Bar Harbor style wing chair, American, C. 1900- 1910, attributed to the Heywood Wakefield Company. This generously sized hand woven wicker wing chair is unique in st...Category
Early 20th Century American Other Patio and Garden Furniture
MaterialsUpholstery, Wicker, Reed, Wood
- Bar Harbor Wicker RockerLocated in Sheffield, MAThis Bar Harbor painted stick wicker rattan rocking chair has classic rounded backrest and wide flat arms with diagonal latticing. Measures: Arm height 25".Category
Early 20th Century American Adirondack Patio and Garden Furniture
MaterialsWicker
$1,200 - Victorian Bar Harbor Wicker Wing Chair with Magazine Rack ArmBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in New York, NYClassic Bar Harbor Victorian wicker arm, lounge, wing chair. The chair has classic braided woven wicker edging, with cross hatched wicker back, and seat, beehive feet and a magazi...Category
Antique Late 19th Century American Victorian Patio and Garden Furniture
MaterialsWicker
- A Wicker Bar Harbor Style Chaise Lounge, Natural Finish with Navy Blue TrimBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Nashua, NHA beautiful reed and rattan wicker chaise lounge in a lovely natural color with a continuous navy blue braid trimming around the back, arms and seating, American, C. 1910 by the Heywood Wakefield Company of Gardner Ma. The perfect piece for your bedroom, covered porch or sunroom, as a matter of fact any room in the house works! Very comfortable with wide arms and broad back in the ever popular Bar Harbor style freshly upholstered in vibrant blue all weather fabric.Fully woven seating beneath a thick comfortable cushion, a fully woven scalloped wicker...Category
Vintage 1910s American Other Patio and Garden Furniture
MaterialsUpholstery, Wicker, Reed, Wood
- Bar Harbor Style Wicker Wing Chair in Natural Finish with Green TrimBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Nashua, NHA beautiful, antique Heywood Wakefield, Bar Harbor style wicker wing chair, recently acquired from a private estate. It is done in natural finish wit...Category
Antique Early 1900s American Patio and Garden Furniture
MaterialsWood, Reed, Wicker