Harvey Probber Black Lacquer Mahogany Brass Hardware and Legs 4 Drawer Chest

You could call Paul McCobb a man of parts. As a furniture designer, his work combined the attributes of many of his now better-known peers. Like Bauhaus designers such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer, McCobb's furniture had purity of form and line. Like the designs of Florence Knoll and George Nelson and his associates, McCobb’s work was efficient and purposeful. And even like George Nakashima, he was adept at interpreting traditional forms, in particular those of chairs, for the 20th century.

More than any other designer beside Russel Wright, with his ubiquitous ceramic tableware, McCobb was arguably responsible for the introduction of modern design into middle-class American households — if for no other reason than that he designed the 1952 set for the original Today show. McCobb also designed cohesive lines of furnishings, such as his best-known Planner Group, that gave homes an instant “look.” McCobb designed for several companies, most notably Directional, the New York firm that also produced designs by other legends, such as Paul Evans and Vladimir Kagan. 

The signal aesthetic attribute of McCobb designs is that he completely forsook ornament — his pieces have no flourishes. And yet, because they are honest — the chairs, desks and tables are made of solid wood, usually maple or birch, often paired with frames and legs of wrought iron; the cabinets are traditionally scaled; the seating pieces have historic antecedents such as the Windsor chair — McCobb’s mid-century modern work has warmth and presence.

As you can see from the offerings on 1stDibs, vintage Paul McCobb designs are the pin-striped suit, or the little black dress, of a décor: an essential.

A popular designer who had his heyday from the late 1940s into the 1970s, Harvey Probber is one of the post-war American creative spirits whose work has been recently rediscovered by collectors. His designs are by-and-large simple and elegant, but his signal achievement was to pioneer one of the key innovations of mid-20th century furniture: sectional, or modular, seating.

Even as a teenager, the Brooklyn-born Probber was making sketches of furniture designs — and selling them to Manhattan furniture companies. He began working as a designer for an upholsterer once he finished high school and, apart from a few evening classes he took as an adult at the Pratt Institute, he was self-taught about design and furniture making.

After wartime service — and a stint as a lounge singer — Probber founded his own company in the late 1940s. A lifelong familiarity with the needs of New York–apartment dwellers doubtless sparked his most noteworthy creation: a line of seating pieces in basic geometric shapes — wedges, squares, half-circles — that could be arranged and combined as needed. Modular furniture remained the core idea of Probber’s business throughout his career.

As a self-trained designer, Probber was never wed to any particular aesthetic. He preferred simple lines for their inherent practicality, but often used hardware to enliven the look of his pieces, or added elements — such as a ceramic insert in the center of a round dining table — that was visually interesting and could serve as a trivet. He gravitated toward bright fabrics with attractive, touchable textures that might be satin-like or nubbly. Above all, Probber insisted that the products that came out of his Fall River, Massachusetts, factory be built to last.

“The quality of aging gracefully,” Probber once told an interviewer, is “design's fourth dimension.” This quality he realized: Probber furniture is just as useful and alluring now as it was when made — and maybe even more stylish.

Find a collection of vintage Harvey Probber side tables, sectional sofas, chairs and other furniture on 1stDibs.