Calvin Mcm
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Stainless Steel
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Desks
Brass
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
Leather, Rattan
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Brass
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Marble
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2010s Mexican American Craftsman Center Tables
Hardwood, Oak
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
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2010s American Mid-Century Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
Brass, Bronze, Enamel, Nickel
21st Century and Contemporary Vietnamese Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
Leather, Wood
2010s American Flush Mount
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Danish Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Desks and Writing Tables
Cherry
2010s American Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Brass, Bronze, Enamel, Nickel
21st Century and Contemporary Mexican Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Textile, Wood
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Ash, Beech, Oak
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Shelves
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Vietnamese Mid-Century Modern Desks and Wr...
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary Portuguese Organic Modern Center Tables
Travertine
Vintage 1970s Norwegian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Leather, Rosewood
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Walnut
21st Century and Contemporary European Modern Side Tables
Ceramic
Recent Sales
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Travertine, Marble, Brass
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Brass
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Buffets
Abalone, Rosewood
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
Brass
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Marble
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Slipper Chairs
Fabric, Wood
Calvin Furniture for sale on 1stDibs
The Grand Rapids, Michigan-based company Calvin Furniture opened its doors in 1953 and became a sought-after contract manufacturer for the day’s top furniture designers and brands. Its appealing mid-century modern and Hollywood Regency offerings — nightstands, dressers and more — graced the showrooms of department stores all over North America during the 1950s and 1960s.
Calvin’s relationship with the work of Massachusetts-born designer Paul McCobb is well known to enthusiasts of mid-century modern furniture. McCobb, whose unadorned and efficient storage pieces, seating and desks drew on Shaker simplicity and Bauhaus minimalism, wasn’t exactly a designer for Calvin — in partnership with New York furniture salesman B.G. Mesberg, McCobb set up the Directional Furniture Company in Manhattan in 1949, and Calvin was one of the manufacturers contracted to produce the furniture he designed for Directional (and later, for pieces designed under his own name).
Among McCobb’s most acclaimed lines made by Calvin Furniture were the Calvin Group and the Irwin Collection. The travertine-topped sideboards and mahogany nightstands of those lines as well as the other Calvin-produced dressers, bookcases and chests of drawers designed by McCobb were elegant and spare, free of unnecessary embellishments.
Calvin also manufactured the very popular American Design Foundation line of furniture that Kipp Stewart and Stewart MacDougall designed. The Pennsylvania-born, California-raised MacDougall enjoyed a postwar collaboration with West Coast native Stewart that resulted in great success with manufacturers such as Glenn of California and Drexel Furniture. The duo’s celebrated Declaration line for the latter featured streamlined credenzas, dressers and more made in walnut with comely porcelain hardware. The dining chairs, tables and coffee tables manufactured by Calvin flaunt the pair’s signature clean lines, gentle curves and organic shapes.
In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, Calvin Furniture continued its business relationship with B.G. Mesberg National Sales and Directional Furniture. Calvin finally closed their doors during the early 1970s, but their legacy can be found in enduring pieces of modern furniture that remain popular today.
On 1stDibs, find a selection of vintage Calvin Furniture tables, credenzas, chairs and more.
A Close Look at mid-century-modern Furniture
Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern furniture. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living.
ORIGINS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Emerged during the mid-20th century
- Informed by European modernism, Bauhaus, International style, Scandinavian modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture
- A heyday of innovation in postwar America
- Experimentation with new ideas, new materials and new forms flourished in Scandinavia, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in Europe
CHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Simplicity, organic forms, clean lines
- A blend of neutral and bold Pop art colors
- Use of natural and man-made materials — alluring woods such as teak, rosewood and oak; steel, fiberglass and molded plywood
- Light-filled spaces with colorful upholstery
- Glass walls and an emphasis on the outdoors
- Promotion of functionality
MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
- Charles and Ray Eames
- Eero Saarinen
- Milo Baughman
- Florence Knoll
- Harry Bertoia
- Isamu Noguchi
- George Nelson
- Danish modernists Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen, whose emphasis on natural materials and craftsmanship influenced American designers and vice versa
ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS
- Eames lounge chair
- Nelson daybed
- Florence Knoll sofa
- Egg chair
- Womb chair
- Noguchi coffee table
- Barcelona chair
VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
The mid-century modern era saw leagues of postwar American architects and designers animated by new ideas and new technology. The lean, functionalist International-style architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the 1930s by Philip Johnson and others. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale in open-plan houses with long walls of glass.
Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair, respectively.
Architect, writer and designer George Nelson created with his team shades for the Bubble lamp using a new translucent polymer skin and, as design director at Herman Miller, recruited the Eameses, Alexander Girard and others for projects at the legendary Michigan furniture manufacturer.
Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. Materials were repurposed too: The Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs using surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests.
The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll, a chief influencer in the rise of modern design in the United States, thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field. The seating that Knoll created for office spaces — as well as pieces designed by Florence initially for commercial clients — soon became desirable for the home.
As the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century furniture designers caught the spirit.
Classically oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise; the British expatriate T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb, who designed holistic groups of sleek, blond wood furniture, and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in minimalist teak dining tables and lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.
As the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture for the living room, dining room, bedroom and elsewhere on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history.