Friso Kramer Euroika
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Glass, Mirror, Teak
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Plywood
People Also Browsed
Antique 1890s English Victorian Fireplaces and Mantels
Pine
Vintage 1970s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
20th Century English Early Victorian Sterling Silver
Crystal, Sterling Silver
Vintage 1970s Czech Dining Room Chairs
Birch
Mid-20th Century German Bauhaus Chairs
Wood, Beech
Mid-20th Century German Modern Chairs
Metal, Chrome
Vintage 1970s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Metal
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fiberglass
Vintage 1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Plastic, Lucite
Vintage 1970s American Art Deco Wall Mirrors
Brass
Antique Early 19th Century English Regency Dining Room Chairs
Mahogany
2010s American Modern Dining Room Chairs
Steel
Vintage 1960s German Chairs
Beech
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Bamboo, Rattan
Recent Sales
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Teak
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Glass, Teak, Plywood
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Shelves and Wall Cabinets
Plexiglass, Teak, Glass
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Side Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Teak
Vintage 1960s Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Glass, Teak, Plywood
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
Metal
Mid-20th Century Dutch Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Mirror, Teak
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
Teak
Vintage 1950s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1950s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
Steel
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Glass, Teak
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Metal
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Vintage 1960s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Dressers
Glass, Plywood
Vintage 1950s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
Friso Kramer Euroika For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Friso Kramer Euroika?
Friso Kramer for sale on 1stDibs
Through both his bold furniture designs and his teaching and administrative positions within the architecture and design industries, the solution-oriented Friso Kramer helped elevate industrial design to a venerated place in the modernist canon.
While the mid-century years saw no shortage of function-minded modernists, Kramer may have been the most extreme of them. “If form does not contribute to the function, it has no right to exist,” the Dutch designer once said. Born in Amsterdam in 1922 to the pioneering architect Piet Kramer, Friso studied architecture, industrial design, electrical engineering and interior design. He cut his teeth in the studios of architect Jan Piet Kloos and interior designer Frans Paulussen, then, in 1948, went to work as a designer at the steel furniture manufacturer De Cirkel (part of the Ahrend group), where he would design some of his best-known work.
The 1953 Revolt chair, which is among his most celebrated seating and a darling of Dutch mid-century modernism, embodied Kramer’s function-first design; its skeletal, industrial form provides for maximum comfort and ergonomic support with minimal material. He joined forces with Wim Rietveld, son of celebrated Dutch modernist Gerrit Rietveld, for the 1958 Result chair, which married elements of the Revolt with forms from Rietveld’s Pyramid series. Kramer found numerous ways to riff on and perfect his brand of minimalism: The 1960 Resort and Repose armchairs demonstrate how he slightly tweaked the skeletal frames for different postures and uses.
In 1963, Kramer left Ahrend to found Total Design Studio with Wim Crouwel, Benno Wissing and Paul and Dick Schwartz. The firm grouped graphic, industrial and spatial design under one roof with the shared belief in functionalism. Though Total Design Studio is still in business today, Kramer left the company to return to Ahrend in 1971, serving as art director until 1983. Following Kramer’s death in 2019, Ahrend teamed up with Danish design brand HAY to relaunch the Result and Revolt chairs.
Find vintage Friso Kramer chairs, sofas, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
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.