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The story of how GETAMA got its name is perhaps as unique as the range of subdued but sophisticated Scandinavian modern furniture for which the manufacturer is known (thanks to a partnership with Hans Wegner).

In the late 1890s in the Danish town of Gedsted, a young cabinetmaker by the name of Carl Pedersen opted to use seaweed — rather than the traditional heather or straw — as mattress stuffing. Pedersen named his new factory Gedsted Tang-og Madrasfabrik (the “Gedsted Seaweed and Mattress Factory”), which he abbreviated to GETAMA. Seaweed’s fire-retardant properties make it an excellent and safe upholstery material for mattresses, chairs and sofas. Pedersen leveraged this quality as a selling point — the abundance of seaweed on the shores of Denmark and its weightlessness added to its appeal as an economical but durable upholstery filling for all kinds of furnishings. The crowning quality was its softness.

GETAMA’s seaweed mattresses proved so popular for their comfort and durability that Pedersen had to expand into a larger factory within the first year. He felt almost obligated to launch a line of bedroom furniture to accompany his much-loved mattresses.

The working relationship established in 1959 between Hans Wegner and GETAMA afforded the company the opportunity to break into the international market. Wegner — a legendary Danish carpenter and furniture designer revered by mid-century modern collectors everywhere — became one of the brand’s principal designers and often spent a great deal of time at the factory — refining and adjusting each new piece until he felt satisfied that it was ready for production. For decades, Wegner’s impressive contributions to GETAMA’s daybeds, lounge chairs, sofas and dining room tables became the backbone of the company’s sales.

Over the years, other designers entered into working agreements with GETAMA, including Nissen & Gehl, OM Design, 2R Design, Blum and Balle, and Jørgen Gammelgaard. Copenhagen native Nanna Ditzel, a Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts alum who trained under Kaare Klint, designed GETAMA’s Mondial coffee table. Alongside her husband, Jørgen Ditzel, she also created the sensuously curvy and wildly popular Ring chair.

Today, the sleek modern furniture that GETAMA manufactures is still inclusive of their lauded mattresses.

On 1stDibs, find vintage GETAMA seating, tables, storage cabinets and other 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.