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Though Robert Sonneman was quite literally born into the lighting business, it took working for another celebrated lighting maker for him to land upon the kind of boundary-pushing modernism for which the New York–based designer is known today.

At the age of 19, fresh off a stint in the U.S. Navy, Sonneman responded to an ad for a position working in the studio of George Kovacs on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, where he became the sole employee. “Although my parents were in the lighting business, they came from a traditional perspective, and Kovacs introduced me to modernism,” Sonneman once said. “It was 1961, and I was immediately captured by the movement.”

While working for Kovacs, Sonneman became captivated by the work of the Bauhaus, and he began experimenting with the influential art and design school’s ideas of functional simplicity in lighting. In 1967, he opened his own studio.

Though Sonneman Design Group produced furniture for a brief time, the designer eventually elected to focus on the one category that had always fascinated him; the brand became known for its floor lamps, sconces, pendants and chandeliers that feature unconventional treatments toward shape and balance, often inspired by modern architecture. Sonneman once said of his work: “I saw the lamps that I built as lighting machines that glorified the industrial aesthetic.”

Indeed, in the spirit of Bauhaus functionality — Sonneman has also cited Mies van der Rohe as being an inspiration — the designer’s work takes function-centric forms and motifs and elevates them while prioritizing technology. This spirit of forward thinking continues today, as Sonneman’s brand, renamed SONNEMAN – A Way of Light in 2003, works with LED bulbs to continue to push the boundaries of what functional lighting can achieve aesthetically.

Current-day releases by SONNEMAN – A Way of Light (still overseen by Sonneman himself) feature 95 percent LED lights and include interior and exterior lighting as well as modular suspended lights as an alternative to track lighting. Sonneman’s vintage pieces, however, are still widely collected on the secondary market.

Find vintage Robert Sonneman lighting on 1stDibs.

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.

The rise of table mirrors reflects changes in culture, attitudes toward leisure and standards of beauty. As the centerpiece of a vanity, an antique or vintage table mirror tells the story of how an emphasis on beauty and wearing makeup became more fashionable in the 17th century in Europe. Table mirrors were also often positioned on lowboys as part of a dressing table.

In the early 20th century, vanities were designed in the glamorous Art Deco style, with the mirrors that adorned them being a central element. Table mirrors began to be manufactured in materials aside from metal and wood, namely enamel and the newly available chrome-plated steel to match the dressing tables on which they would sit.

Today, mirrors can add drama to any space, and table mirrors range from ornately carved and gilded framed mirrors to simple modern glass and metal mirrors. Table mirrors are at home on a vanity in a bedroom and are attractive pieces in a study, library or even a bathroom or dressing room.

Find a wide collection of table mirrors for any design aesthetic and every collector on 1stDibs.