Italian Lounge Chairs for the Sorrento Hotel in Capri
Located in Los Angeles, CA
perfect blend of comfort and style at the Lounge Chairs in Sorrento Hotel designed by Cerutti di Ugo
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Wood
Italian Lounge Chairs for the Sorrento Hotel in Capri
Located in Los Angeles, CA
perfect blend of comfort and style at the Lounge Chairs in Sorrento Hotel designed by Cerutti di Ugo
Wood
$3,159Sale Price|20% Off
H 10 in W 31 in D 8 in
Rare Goldkant Cocoon Two-Light Pendand Lamp 1960's Castiglioni, Flos Style
By Goldkant Leuchten, Achille Castiglioni
Located in Frankfurt am Main, DE
Rare, extra wide Mid-Century Modern Cocoon two-light pendant lamp or flush mount by Friedel Wauer for Goldkant in the style of Achille Castiglioni, designed and manufactured in Germa...
Metal, Chrome
$2,520Sale Price|40% Off
H 27.5 in W 35.75 in D 20.75 in
1970's Brass and Mirror Three Door Cabinet by Ello
By Ello Furniture
Located in Van Nuys, CA
This 1970s postmodern bronze and polished metal mirror cabinet by Ello features three-panel mirror doors and a big interior storage space. The metal has some dings and a small amount...
Metal, Brass
Orgo, Rose Marble
Located in Hollywood, FL
The organic-shaped Orgo cocktail table is a pleasing accent in any modern setting. Each hand-finished table is constructed from layers of Rose Marble, with all the variations of Natu...
Marble
Amoeba Hand Painted Silk Noil Red Curtain
By Naomi Clark, Fort Makers
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Pick a color, any color and Naomi Clark will use that color in an Amoeba silk noil painting! Light and slightly transparent, painted silk noil looks beautiful hanging in a window fra...
Other
$19,324
H 71.66 in W 82.68 in D 25.6 in
A corner sofa by J.M. Middelraad for H. Pander & Zn, circa 1900, The Netherlands
By H.Pander & Zonen
Located in Delft, NL
A corner sofa by J.M. Middelraad for H. Pander & Zn A corner sofa with fabric upholstery. The beautiful hand-carved details in Art Nouveau patterns and dragonflies, as well as on th...
Fabric, Palmwood
Mid-Century Teak Sofa Bed with Storage Headboard, 1960s Design
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A versatile and functional example of Mid-Century design, this teak sofa bed offers both comfortable seating and convenient storage. Complete with a matching, detached headboard feat...
Teak, Upholstery
$3,064Sale Price / item|20% Off
H 11.82 in W 27.56 in D 17.72 in
Soda Blown Murano Glass Oval Coffee Table in Petrol by Yiannis Ghikas
By Yiannis Ghikas, Miniforms
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Give or take a stem or two: this time Soda has only two stems, and its top takes on an elongated shape. Smooth as a surfboard, it evokes the fluidity of 1950s French design, but with...
Blown Glass
1950’s Danish Sofa
By Fritz Heningsen
Located in Turners Falls, MA
Very well crafted Danish cabinet maker sofa. Stripped wool upholstery with oak legs. Denmark. 1950’s
Upholstery, Oak
$3,800Sale Price|20% Off
H 27.25 in W 67.5 in D 36 in
Fantastic Pencil Reed Loveseat Sofa Mid-Century Modern
By Adrian Pearsall
Located in Pemberton, NJ
Fantastic Adrian Pearsall for Comfort Designs bent pencil reed loveseat sofa. This piece is spectacular in person and the light blue linen upholstery is still in nice condition too...
Rattan, Wood
Purple Cielo Bistro Table by Sebastian Herkner
By Sebastian Herkner
Located in Geneve, CH
Purple Cielo bistro table by Sebastian Herkner Dimensions: 60 x 73 x 60 cm Materials: Steel The popular cielo collection of chairs, loungers and lounge chairs - designed by Sebastia...
Metal
$3,064Sale Price / item|20% Off
H 11.82 in W 27.56 in D 17.72 in
Soda Blown Murano Glass Oval Coffee Table in Amber by Yiannis Ghikas
By Yiannis Ghikas, Miniforms
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Give or take a stem or two: this time Soda has only two stems, and its top takes on an elongated shape. Smooth as a surfboard, it evokes the fluidity of 1950s French design, but with...
Blown Glass
$1,860Sale Price|51% Off
H 36.23 in W 27.96 in D 35.44 in
Italian Armchair in Green Walnut in 1940 Silk Flowers Orient Turns Into a Bed
By Paolo Buffa
Located in Palermo, Sicily
Italian Armchair in Green Walnut in 1940 Silk Flowers Orient Turns Into a Bed. Detail of Armchairs from around 1940, made of walnut, turns into a single bed, very particular and stu...
Silk, Velvet, Walnut
$17,935
H 7.49 in W 37.41 in D 37.41 in
Very rare Mah Jong 'Private Collection' by Hans Hopfer for Roche Bobois France
By Roche Bobois
Located in Buggenhout, Oost-Vlaanderen
Extremely rare and stunning Mah Jong! Roche Bobois created this one-of-a-kind sofa for a special client in a custom yellow/gold fabric. The choice of the vibrant yellow/gold fabric ...
Fabric
$1,500 / set
H 11 in Dm 7.25 in
Pair Louis Weisdorf for Lyfa Orange & Rose "Facet Pop" Hanging Pendants
By Louis Weisdorf, Lyfa
Located in Bainbridge, NY
Original Pair of Danish Modern Louis Weisdorf for Lyfa Ballerup Multi Colored Hanging Lamps, early 1970's. Featuring faceted cylindrical forms with castellated Orange, Muted Rose and...
Aluminum
$2,484Sale Price|31% Off
H 31 in W 31 in D 20 in
Streamline Mahogany and Rattan Writing Desk with Rattan Pulls & Shelf
Located in Van Nuys, CA
Streamline Art Deco rattan writing desk with a rattan border, Mahogany sides, and top with four pull drawers and 3-tier side shelf along the side. Restored to new for you. We only...
Rattan
$2,100Sale Price|40% Off
H 32 in W 60.5 in D 19.5 in
Restored Vintage 1950s Teak and Rice Mat "V" Lowboy Dresser With Rattan
By Ficks Reed
Located in Van Nuys, CA
Original Post-War oak and rattan lowboy dresser with decorative rattan "V" and border accents with six pull-out drawers.. The dresser is wrapped in rice mat front and sides 1950, Un...
Rattan
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
CHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS
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 celebrated 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.
Generations turn over, and mid-century modern remains arguably the most popular style going. 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.
While this specific seating is known to all for its comfort and familiar form, the history of how your favorite antique or vintage lounge chair came to be is slightly more ambiguous.
Although there are rare armchairs dating back as far as the 17th century, some believe that the origins of the first official “lounge chair” are tied to Hungarian modernist designer-architect Marcel Breuer. Sure, Breuer wasn’t exactly reinventing the wheel when he introduced the Wassily lounge chair in 1925, but his seat was indeed revolutionary for its integration of bent tubular steel.
Officially, a lounge chair is simply defined as a “comfortable armchair,” which allows for the shape and material of the furnishings to be extremely diverse. Whether or not chaise longues make the cut for this category is a matter of frequent debate.
The Eames lounge chair, on the other hand, has come to define somewhat of a universal perception of what a lounge chair can be. Introduced in 1956, the Eames lounger (and its partner in cozy, the ottoman) quickly became staples in television shows, prestigious office buildings and sumptuous living rooms. Venerable American mid-century modern designers Charles and Ray Eames intended for it to be the peak of luxury, which they knew meant taking furniture to the next level of style and comfort. Their chair inspired many modern interpretations of the lounge — as well as numerous copies.
On 1stDibs, find a broad range of unique lounge chairs that includes everything from antique Victorian-era seating to vintage mid-century modern lounge chairs by craftspersons such as Hans Wegner to contemporary choices from today’s innovative designers.
You know the designs, now get the stories about how they came to be.
The enduring appeal of the Barcelona chair is in the details.
The brand that turned Charles and Ray Eames, Isamu Noguchi and George Nelson into mid-century household names is just as relevant today as it was six decades ago.
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