Heywood Wakefield Vanity Stool
Vintage 1940s Stools
Upholstery, Birch
People Also Browsed
2010s American Modern Side Chairs
Aluminum
1990s European Post-Modern Swivel Chairs
Plastic
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vanities
Chrome
Mid-20th Century Victorian Footstools
Wicker
Early 20th Century Italian Stools
Wood
2010s Balkan Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Marble
Antique Early 19th Century English Regency Stools
Rosewood
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Upholstery, Birch
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Upholstery, Oak
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Wood, Upholstery
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Benches
Leather, Hardwood
Antique 17th Century Dining Room Chairs
Oak
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Chrome
Early 20th Century Stools
Oak, Paint
Antique Early 1900s American Edwardian Stools
Leather, Wicker
Recent Sales
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Maple
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Upholstery, Wood
Vintage 1950s American Stools
Birch
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vanities
Suede, Mirror, Maple
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Maple
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Upholstery, Birch
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Upholstery
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vanities
Maple
Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Bedroom Sets
Metal
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Upholstery, Maple
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vanities
Maple
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Upholstery, Birch
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Stools
Velvet, Maple
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Ottomans and Poufs
Upholstery, Maple
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Desks
Teak
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Vanities
Velvet, Mirror, Birch
Vintage 1940s American Art Deco Vanities
Mirror, Wood
Heywood Wakefield Vanity Stool For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Heywood Wakefield Vanity Stool?
Heywood-Wakefield Co. for sale on 1stDibs
Created by the 19th-century merger of two venerable Massachusetts furniture makers, Heywood-Wakefield was one of the largest and most successful companies of its kind in the United States. In its early decades, the firm thrived by crafting affordable and hugely popular wicker pieces in traditional and historical styles. In the midst of the Great Depression, however, Heywood-Wakefield reinvented itself, creating instead the first modernist furnishings to be widely embraced in American households.
The Heywoods were five brothers from Gardner, Massachusetts, who in 1826 started a business making wooden chairs and tables in their family shed. As their company grew, they moved into the manufacture of furniture with steam-bent wood frames and cane or wicker seats, backs and sides. In 1897, they joined forces with a local rival, the Wakefield Rattan Company, whose founder, Cyrus Wakefield, got his start on the Boston docks buying up lots of discarded rattan, which was used as cushioning material in the holds of cargo ships, and transforming it into furnishings. The conglomerate initially did well with both early American style and woven pieces, but taste began to change at the turn of the 20th century and wicker furniture fell out of fashion. In 1930, the company brought in designer Gilbert Rohde, a champion of the Art Deco style. Before departing in 1932 to lead the Michigan furniture maker Herman Miller, Rohde created well-received sleek, bentwood chairs for Heywood-Wakefield and gave its colonial pieces a touch of Art Deco flair.
Committed to the new style, Heywood-Wakefield commissioned work from an assortment of like-minded designers, including Alfons Bach, W. Joseph Carr, Leo Jiranek and Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, a Russian nobleman who had made his name in Europe creating elegant automotive body designs.
In 1936, the company introduced its “Streamline Modern” group of furnishings, presenting a look that would define the company’s wares for another 30 years. The buoyantly bright, blond wood — maple initially, later birch — came in finishes such as amber “wheat” and pink-tinted “champagne.” The forms of the pieces, at once light and substantial, with softly contoured edges and little adornment beyond artful drawer pulls and knobs, were featured in lines with names such as “Sculptura,” “Crescendo” and “Coronet.” It was forward-looking, optimistic and built to last — a draw for middle-class buyers in the Baby Boom years.
By the 1960s, Heywood-Wakefield began to be seen as “your parents’ furniture.” The last of the Modern line came out in 1966; the company went bankrupt in 1981. The truly sturdy pieces have weathered the intervening years well, having found a new audience for their blithe and happy sophistication.
Find a collection of vintage Heywood-Wakefield desks, chairs, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.