Bentwood Vitrines

Early 1900s lighted curio cabinet with glass doors.

A Dramatic and striking Mastercraft burl wood and glass curio display cabinet with gold veined mirror back, arched and finely beveled window pane...

Superb 1930s Art Deco walnut cathedral display cabinet. Gorgeous mid to light tone walnut veneers, still with original working key and two glass shelves. Generously spaced interior, ...

Art Dèco vitrines or display cabinet, Italian production of the 1920s, in walnut and walnut briar, screen-printed glass with grinding around. The showcase has been restored and polis...

Distressed paint but structurally sound and tight, Vernis Martin vitrine with hand painted panels, bronze mounts and curved glass. Has working lockset & key. Three glass shelves all ...

A rare and important Art Deco period Century of Progress Display Cabinet designed by Wolfgang Hoffmann (Austrian, 1900-1969) for Romweber Company, Batesville, Indiana, United States of America. circa 1933-1936 Created for the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, one piece design, having a rectangular showcase top with glass panel sides and a pair of sliding glass doors, over solid wood chest fitted with four drawers affixed with horizontal pulls, flanked by cabinet doors, opening to shelved interior. Rosewood, mahogany, richly figured blonde - golden birch or primavera, and glass. Signed, original label to drawer interior, featuring 1933 World's Fair mark impressed. **Please note, at the time of writing this, a matching sideboard - buffet (shown in last photo) is currently available separately** Provenance / Acquisition: Property from the important and iconic collection of Mr. James I. Rafftesaeth Jr., Dallas, Texas Acquired from highly reputable auction house, Heritage Auctions, Dallas, Texas. 2022 Design Signature Auction catalog #8091 History: Wolfgang Hoffmann was born in Vienna, Austria in 1900. He is the son of famous architect, pedagogue and Wiener Werkstatte cofounder, Joseph Hoffmann (1870-1956). Early on, following his father’s s interests, he was trained in the decorative arts and design. Wolfgang Hoffmann once reminisced, “I spent eight years at the Realschule, then three years went to a special architectural school, where I perfected my technical knowledge of architecture and general construction. From this school, I was graduated to the Kunstgewerbeschule [Studying under Oskar Strnad and Josef Frank in Vienna]. After finishing this school, I had one and a half years of practical in a well known architect’s office. Thereafter I worked in my Father’s office for two years”. Hoffmann met his future wife, Polish immigrant Pola (1902-1984) when they were both studying at the Kunstgewerbeschule. Joseph Urban (1872-1933) was needing an assistant for his architectural business in New York and contacted his friend and colleague, Joseph Hoffmann in Vienna. Hoffmann recommended his son Wolfgang. Urban hired him and sent a first class passage ticket to Vienna for Wolfgang to travel to New York. Wolfgang married Pola and traded his ticket for two tickets to America in steerage, arriving in New York City in December of 1925. Leaving the Urban office after nine months, Wolfgang and Pola formed an independent design practice with offices on Madison Avenue in Manhattan with the purpose of creating contemporary interiors and industrial designs. Early work included theaters, stores, and apartments mostly in New York City. During the late 1920’s and early 1930’s the Hoffmanns designed custom furniture for private clients. Some of these examples were shown in the February 1929 issue of House and Garden. Curiously, the examples’ design was attributed to Urban and the production to Pola Hoffmann, Inc. Established in the fall of 1928, the American Designers’ Gallery was “devoted exclusively to showing objects and interiors for practical use… by fourteen American architects and designers”. Its members included the Hoffmans and Urban as well as ceramist Henry Varnum Poor (1888-1971), architect Raymond Hood (1881-1934), artist designer Winold Reiss (1886-1953), graphic designer Lucien Bernhard (1896-1981), decorator Donald Deskey (1894-1989), and architect Ely Jacques Kahn (1884-1972). The Hoffmanns’ work was included in the American Designers’ Gallery’s two showcase events, its 1928 and 1929 exhibitions. Their dining alcove at the 1929 event featured a bench with a dinette table and two chairs in American walnut designed by Wolfgang and a rug by Pola. Lucien Bernhard, fellow Austrian immigrant who settled in New York a year before the Hoffmanns, operated the gallery and decorating service Contempora with Munich resident Bruno Paul (1874-1968). The Hoffmanns, occasionally participating with Contempora, designed a number of outstanding interiors, including the constructivist living room of 1930 for Mrs. O.R. Sommerich at 40 East 66th street. In 1934, Donald Deskey commissioned Wolfgang to design birchwood furnishings for the eclectic apartment at 625 Park Avenue belonging to Helena Rubinstein. In 1931, Wolfgang exhibited his work at the Pennsylvania Art Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The same year, with Kem Weber (1889-1963) he organized the second and final exhibition of AUDAC- “Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts”- at the Brooklyn Museum. At this event, the Hoffmanns showed the dining room previously included in the American Designer’s Gallery’s 1929 exhibition in the Chase Bank Building lobby at 145 West 57th Street in Manhattan. In 1932 Wolfgang was asked to assist Urban in developing the color scheme for the 1933-34 Chicago World’s Fair “A Century of Progress”. He was also commissioned to design the interior and furniture for the fair’s lumber industries house. There he executed its living and dining rooms furnished by Kroehler Manufacturing Company of Chicago; the boys’ room by Shower Brothers...

The top of this cabinet is inlaid with ebony and boxwood banding. The cabinet section has glass windows on all four sides that have shaped framing. The single drawer below the cabine...

A classic Louis XV style vernis Martin display vitrine with serpentine glass door. Luxurious rococo revival elements are in full force here, curving wood veneer and glass surfaces offset by vine-like ribbons of ormolu bronze detailing, with lush green velvet interior set atop cabriole legs tipped with decorative sabots. At center is a hand-painted “fêtes galantes” scene...

19th century Chinese Chippendale style display cabinet. Beautiful detail with three glass shelves plus the bottom shelf. Fitted with ...

Antique Louis XV style Vernis Martin China display cabinet/Vitrine, circa 1900. The cabinet having a pierced brass gallery to the top and a brass frieze below with hanging floral gar...

ART DECO GILDED IRON, BRASS AND ACID-ETCHED GLASS HANGING DISPLAY CABINET France, circa 1930s Item # 209FRI22L An absolutely gorgeous collector's display cabinet of the Art Deco pe...

Art Deco interior illuminated vitrine, dry bar, display cabinet, in the manner of Jules Leleu, France, 1940s Wood veneer display cabinet, glass door opening, mirrored interior, orig...