Edward Wormley for Dunbar Furniture Curved Sofa in White Fabric
View Similar Items
Edward Wormley for Dunbar Furniture Curved Sofa in White Fabric
About the Item
- Creator:Dunbar Furniture (Manufacturer),Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 27.75 in (70.49 cm)Width: 85 in (215.9 cm)Depth: 34 in (86.36 cm)Seat Height: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s-1960s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Newly upholstered.
- Seller Location:West Palm Beach, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: 1410179283328
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.
- Cocktail Table by Leon Rosen for Pace FurnitureBy Leon RosenLocated in West Palm Beach, FLThis iconic Pace octagonal top cocktail table was designed by Leon Rosen for the Pace Furniture Collection in the 1970s. Note: The base of intersecting X-forms are chrome plated steel. Note: The thickness of the glass is .75" and each section of the top measures approximately 18" in width. FYI Leon Rosen designed many iconic pieces for the Pace Furniture Collections...Category
Late 20th Century American Post-Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsChrome
- Mixed Media Painting by Harold Edward LarsenBy Harold LarsenLocated in West Palm Beach, FLThis stylish, large scale mixed media on paper artwork is by the American artist Harold Edward Larsen (b.1935) and was acquired from a Palm Beach ...Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Contemporary Art
MaterialsPaper
- Mixed-Media Artwork by Harold Edward LarsenLocated in West Palm Beach, FLThis stylish 1980s mixed-media artwork by the American artist Harold Edward Larsen (b.1935) was acquired from a Palm Beach estate. Note: Signed...Category
Late 20th Century American Modern Contemporary Art
MaterialsWood, Paper, Glass
- Abstract Oil on Canvas Painting by Edward GiobbiBy Edward GiobbiLocated in West Palm Beach, FLThis large scale oil on canvas painting was acquired from a Palm Beach estate and is by the American artist Edward Giobbi. The piece is quite unique as the artist has created what is...Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern Paintings
MaterialsCanvas
- Round Side Table in Clear and White LuicteBy Angel & ZevallosLocated in West Palm Beach, FLThis stylish, chic and cleaned lined lucite table can be used as an end or side table.Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern End Tables
MaterialsLucite
- Head of Roam Male in White PorcelainLocated in West Palm Beach, FLEvocative Mid-Century Modern Roman Head of male in white porcelain on faux malachite stand from a Palm Beach estate. Square base measures 4 1/2 x 4 ...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Neoclassical Figurative Sculptures
MaterialsPorcelain
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar SofaBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley for Dunbar Sofa, early design with great scale, spring seating system, reupholstered and rebuilt reupholstered with wool ...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsUpholstery
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar 'Oasis' Sofa in White BoucleBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Waalwijk, NLEdward Wormley for Dunbar, 'Oasis' sofa, model '5200', reupholstered in white boucle, wood, United States, 1952 The 'Oasis' sofa (1952) is designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Th...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsFabric, Wood
- Edward Wormley Slipper Sofa for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Denton, TXEdward Wormley slipper sofa for Dunbar with off white upholstery and ebonized bentwood legs. Older restoration.Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsUpholstery, Bentwood
- Sofa by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Dorchester, MAThis elegant sofa is a classic 1950s design by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. It features a tufted back and a long bench seat resting on tapered walnut fee...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsUpholstery, Walnut
- Edward Wormley Dunbar SofaBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley Dunbar sofa can be paired as a sectional with matching chaise longue 5525 we have offered in another listing.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsUpholstery
$15,000 - Sectional Sofa by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Los Angeles, CAEdward Wormley for Dunbar, c.1960s, USA, two-piece sectional sofa. The sofa features split arm rests and an exposed sculpted ebonized wood frame. This sofa has been fully reupholster...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Sectional Sofas
MaterialsVelvet, Walnut