Edward Wormley Console
View Similar Items
Edward Wormley Console
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 26 in (66.04 cm)Width: 48 in (121.92 cm)Depth: 17 in (43.18 cm)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Hudson, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU80431198418
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.
- Edward Wormley Console TableBy Edward WormleyLocated in West Palm Beach, FLEdward Wormley Console Table by Dunbar, with wave pattern across apron and large shell pedestal base, model #Category
20th Century American Console Tables
MaterialsPine
- Tambour Door Console by Edward WormleyBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Sagaponack, NYA rare curved front console in rich grained rosewood with a single drawer and slatted tambour storage.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Console CabinetBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA beautiful walnut and mahogany console with stone top. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Cabinets
MaterialsWalnut
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Interlocking Tables, Coffee / ConsoleBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Buffalo, NYA rare set of nesting tables designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. This set can be arranged together or separately in multiple configurations, cocktail table and console table, Stun...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsLaminate, Walnut
- Dunbar Console or Sofa Table by Edward WormleyBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA mahogany and walnut console table with rosewood pulls. The table features book holders on either side and three drawers. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Console Tables
- Early Elegant Custom Edward Wormley Console for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILAn elegant Wormley console with 9 x 9 travertine marble tile insets to form one long marble rectangular form. Most likely a custom form. This console bares the early green Dunbar label.Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
MaterialsWood