Jan Pieter Berghoef

Dutch furniture company ‘t Spectrum — later Spectrum — was established in 1941 with a run of pieces that were spare and outwardly industrial in appearance. Its early armchairs and dining chairs were often framed in tubular metal, and boast clearly defined lines and minimal curves. The vintage ‘t Spectrum seating in the decades that followed, which was designed by the likes of Gerrit Rietveld and Wim van Gelderen, is characterized by the angular forms and Pop art-hued colors that we associate with the best of mid-century modernism.

‘t Spectrum emerged in 1941 as an offshoot of the Dutch fabric manufacturer De Ploeg. When a shortage of textiles and other materials took shape owing to the demands of the Second World War, De Ploeg director Piet Blijenburg changed gears, and sought to broaden the manufacturer’s offerings as well as prevent the company's employees from being forced into work for occupying military forces. 

‘t Spectrum was a brand devoted to furniture and interiors — as well as goods and decor for the home such as coat racks, napkin rings and beds. Legendary modernist furniture designer Gerrit Rietveld — an integral part of the Dutch art and design movement of the early 20th century called De Stijl — was brought on in a supervisory role in its early days, and designer Martin Visser was installed to oversee the production of furniture. 

The end of the war brought a greater availability of metals and other materials to ‘t Spectrum, which became more focused on creating affordable furniture for the era’s new homeowners. A new factory designed by Rietveld was built in Bergeijk in 1957. During the late 1960s, ‘t Spectrum offered a richer range of furnishings, incorporating alluring hardwoods and leathers as part of sophisticated lines of seating and other pieces designed in the mid-century modern style. Visser recruited the likes of Friso Kramer, Benno Premsela, Constant Nieuwenhuys and others to design for ‘t Spectrum over the years.

With competition for cheaper furniture on the rise in the 1970s, ‘t Spectrum liquidated in 1974. A group of employees acquired the designs and continued the company under the name of Arspect. The firm produced ‘t Spectrum designs and works from other designers. 

Arspect closed its doors in 1986. A former employee bought the company and renewed it with the name Spectrum. Today, Spectrum operates in Eindhoven in the Netherlands, creating contemporary designs alongside pieces dating back to the look and feel of the products offered by the original manufacturer. The company is also reproducing original designs created by Visser and Rietveld.

On 1stDibs, browse a selection of vintage ‘t Spectrum Bergijk seating, tables, storage pieces and more.

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.

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.