Edward Wormley for Dunbar Coffee Table
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 25.25 in (64.14 cm)Diameter: 43 in (109.22 cm)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Refinished. Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Dallas, TX
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU851828131662
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 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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Dallas, TX
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Triangular Coffee TableBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA triangular coffee table with burled Carpethian elm top and walnut legs with brass caps. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsElm, Mahogany
- Travertine Coffee Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA low coffee table with three legged mahogany base, brass feet and travertine top. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsTravertine
- Dunbar Surfboard Coffee Table by Edward WormleyBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXAn early surfboard coffee table designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood
- Table Designed by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA beautifully crafted table designed by Edward Worley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s End Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Edward Wormley "a Chair" for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA rare chair in mahogany with solid brass legs. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Chairs
- Magazine Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXAn Edward Wormley for Dunbar magazine table with bentwood holders.Category
Vintage 1950s Side Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Coffee TableBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Cathedral City, CA1960s round oak ceruse finish coffee table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar MCM Burl Wood Centre or Cocktail Round TableBy Edward WormleyLocated in Plainview, NYEdward Wormley Mid Century Modern for Dunbar burl wood center or cocktail round Table. A timeless 1950s mid century modern faceted burl olive wood pedesta...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Center Tables
MaterialsGlass, Wood, Burl
- Edward Wormley Coffee Table for "Dunbar", 1950sBy Edward WormleyLocated in New York, NYLarge scale, round coffee table by Edward Wormley for "Dunbar", produced in 1950s in Burne, Indiana. Newly refinished mahogany base with original cork top. Label underneath. Great ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMahogany, Cork
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Extension Coffee TableBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley for Dunbar, custom cocktail table, 3 positions with polished stone inside brass framed extension leaves. Solid crisscross oiled walnut frame and top. Width without ex...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sofa Tables
MaterialsStone, Brass
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Janus Coffee TableBy Edward WormleyLocated in New York, NYEdward Wormley for Dunbar Janus coffee table. The table is walnut with a geometric shape and the centre has five, round, Tiffany Studios glas...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut, Glass
- Edward Wormley Burl Coffee Table for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Los Angeles, CACoffee table designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, c.1950s, USA. The rectangular table features an ebonized base with six turned wood legs and stretchers that reach the length of th...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMaple, Burl