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Kuno Prey

Danese Milano Kuno Prey Concrete Clock, 1986
By Danese Milano
Located in Meer, VAN
Danese Milano Kuno prey concrete clock. Italy, 1986. This is a very rare post-modern concrete
Category

Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Table Clocks and Desk Clocks

Materials

Concrete

Danese Milano Kuno Prey Concrete Clock, 1986
Danese Milano Kuno Prey Concrete Clock, 1986
$1,950
H 7.88 in W 7.88 in D 1.58 in

Recent Sales

Rexite Modus Desk Organizer by Kuno Prey
By Rexite
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Part of the Modus line of desk accessories designed by Kuno Prey for Rexite. This is new old stock
Category

Late 20th Century Post-Modern More Desk Accessories

Materials

Plastic

Rexite Modus 450 Letter Tray by Kuno Prey
By Rexite
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Part of the Modus line of desk accessories designed by Kuno Prey for Rexite. This is new old stock
Category

Late 20th Century Post-Modern More Desk Accessories

Materials

Plastic

Modus Desk Set by Kuno Prey for Rexite
By Rexite
Located in Brooklyn, NY
A set of desk accessories designed by Kuno Prey for Rexite’s Modus line. New old stock that
Category

Late 20th Century Post-Modern Desk Sets

Materials

Plastic

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Post Modern Bendable Floor Lamp by Hannes Wettstein for Belux, Spain
By Belux, Hannes Wettstein
Located in Los Angeles, CA
This Articulated floor lamp designed by Hannes Wettstein for Belux is a beautiful example of 1980's post modern design. In excellent condition.
Category

Vintage 1980s Spanish Post-Modern Floor Lamps

Materials

Steel

Selection of Coffee Table Books - Furniture Design Interior Design Fashion Art
By Jean Dunand, (after) Jean Michel Frank
Located in Atlanta, GA
Selection of Coffee Table Books, priced at $150 each. If one of the books is sold, it will have SOLD next to the title below. These books are all from the estate of . was the Preside...
Category

Early 2000s American Mid-Century Modern Books

Materials

Paper

Jean Prouve Facade element in enamal France 1965
By Jean Prouvé
Located in Roosendaal, Noord Brabant
Rare facade element by Jean Prouve, designed for the André-Argouges high school, Grenoble France 1965. Made of enamelled metal with isolation inside. All the façades for this buildin...
Category

Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Architectural Elements

Materials

Enamel

Jean Prouve Facade element in enamal France 1965
Jean Prouve Facade element in enamal France 1965
$4,726
H 67.72 in W 43.71 in D 2.76 in
A Space-Age TABLE LAMP by JOSEPH-ANDRE MOTTE for DISDEROT, France 1960
By Joseph-André Motte
Located in PARIS, FR
A rare (silver structure) and early version of the iconic M5 table lamp, nickeled curved metal structure and 2 sculptural Perspex bended shades, by Joseph-André Motte, produced by Di...
Category

Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants

Materials

Bronze

Klas-Göran Klaesson Sheep Sculpture in Stoneware, Sweden 1991
Located in Utrecht, NL
Standing not only as a decorative object but also as an evocation of Scandinavian folk traditions and the artist’s deep respect for nature and craft, this piece is sure to be a lovel...
Category

1990s Swedish Modern Animal Sculptures

Materials

Stoneware

Space Age 70s Design Clock with Red Orb-Like Design - Vintage Tabletop Decor
Located in San Benedetto Del Tronto, IT
Rare 1970s Space Age clock made in Italy by Zarvath. A perfect example of Italian design, this striking red plastic timepiece embodies the sleek, futuristic aesthetics of the era. It...
Category

Vintage 1970s Italian Space Age Table Clocks and Desk Clocks

Materials

Plastic

Vintage German Postmodern Wall Clock from Staiger, 1980s
Located in Hamburg, DE
Vintage German Postmodern Wall Clock from Staiger, 1980s, in Very Good conditions. Designed 1980 to 1989 This piece has an attribution mark. Additional information: Materials: Plast...
Category

20th Century German Post-Modern Wall Clocks

Materials

Plastic

Spanish Ceramic Terracotta Centerpiece Bowl
Located in Barcelona, ES
Spanish 19th century green and beige ceramic terracotta bowl / centerpiece Green and Off White colors. Beautiful handcrafted terracotta lebrillo bowl with glazed ceramic finishing in...
Category

Antique Late 19th Century Spanish Rustic Ceramics

Materials

Ceramic, Terracotta

Paul Kingma Artwork coffee table in travertin The Netherlands 1980
By Paul Kingma
Located in Etten-Leur, NL
Beautiful square shaped coffee table designed and made by Paul Kingma, The Netherlands 1980. The heavy white solid travertin top rests on a travertine cross base, made of two parts. ...
Category

Vintage 1980s Dutch Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables

Materials

Travertine, Stone, Brass, Copper

Paul Kingma Artwork coffee table in travertin The Netherlands 1980
Paul Kingma Artwork coffee table in travertin The Netherlands 1980
On Hold
$3,889
H 16.54 in W 39.38 in D 39.38 in
Vico Magistretti Set of Two Red Selene Chairs by Artemide 1970s
By Vico Magistretti, Artemide
Located in Montecatini Terme, IT
A set of two Selene stackable chairs in red resin reinforced with fiberglass, designed by Vico Magistretti in 1967 and produced by Artemide Milano in the 1970s. The Selene chair was...
Category

Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chairs

Materials

Plastic, Rubber

Vico Magistretti Set of Two Red Selene Chairs by Artemide 1970s
Vico Magistretti Set of Two Red Selene Chairs by Artemide 1970s
$897 / set
H 29.53 in W 18.51 in D 19.69 in
Atelier International Limited (Cassina) Trade Catalog, 1988
By Le Corbusier, Cassina, Frank Lloyd Wright, Atelier International
Located in New York, NY
Atelier International catalog in original printed plastic ring binder, with tabbed sections for Seating, Armchairs, Tables, Storage, and Office Furniture. The roster of designers fea...
Category

Vintage 1980s Italian Modern Books

Materials

Plastic, Paper

Set of Ten Val Saint Lambert State Plain Champagne Coupes
Located in Chicago, IL
A covetable set of ten blown crystal champagne coupes by famed Belgian crystal company, Val Saint Lambert, in the State Plain pattern, each with a simple bowl with straight sides and...
Category

Mid-20th Century Belgian Crystal Serveware

Materials

Crystal

Carla Venosta and Guido Zimmerman for Arflex 'Valiant' Bookcase in Steel
By Guido Zimmerman, Arflex
Located in Waalwijk, NL
Carla Venosta and Guido Zimmerman for Arflex, 'Valiant' wall unit / room divider, stainless steel, glass, Italy, 1971 The 'Valiant' wall unit that doubles as room divider, designed...
Category

Vintage 1970s Italian Post-Modern Shelves

Materials

Stainless Steel

Neon Infinity Mirror by Merit Los Angeles
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Stunning neon and plexiglass infinity mirror by Merit. Handmade in Los Angeles. Incredible presence with two neon rings that reflect deep into the mirror. Great illusion. All encased...
Category

2010s American Wall Mirrors

Materials

Mirror, Plexiglass

Neon Infinity Mirror by Merit Los Angeles
Neon Infinity Mirror by Merit Los Angeles
$12,000
H 42 in W 29.75 in D 11.75 in
Painted Antique Caen Stone Architectural Fragment
Located in Wormelow, Herefordshire
A vibrantly painted antique Caen stone architectural fragment. Dating from the mid 19th century, this limestone model came from a French church destroyed during WWII. With its arched...
Category

Antique Mid-19th Century French Victorian Abstract Sculptures

Materials

Stone, Limestone

Painted Antique Caen Stone Architectural Fragment
Painted Antique Caen Stone Architectural Fragment
$1,709
H 20.48 in W 26.19 in D 5.52 in
Set of Eight Captured Bubble Champagne Coupes
Located in Chicago, IL
A wonderful set of eight vintage American blown crystal champagne coupes each with a captured bubble in the bottom of the bowl, and a rolled foot. Not just perfect for serving champa...
Category

Late 20th Century American Crystal Serveware

Materials

Crystal

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A Close Look at Post-modern Furniture

Postmodern design was a short-lived movement that manifested itself chiefly in Italy and the United States in the early 1980s. The characteristics of vintage postmodern furniture and other postmodern objects and decor for the home included loud-patterned, usually plastic surfaces; strange proportions, vibrant colors and weird angles; and a vague-at-best relationship between form and function.

ORIGINS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

  • Emerges during the 1960s; popularity explodes during the ’80s
  • A reaction to prevailing conventions of modernism by mainly American architects
  • Architect Robert Venturi critiques modern architecture in his Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture (1966)
  • Theorist Charles Jencks, who championed architecture filled with allusions and cultural references, writes The Language of Post-Modern Architecture (1977)
  • Italian design collective the Memphis Group, also known as Memphis Milano, meets for the first time (1980) 
  • Memphis collective debuts more than 50 objects and furnishings at Salone del Milano (1981)
  • Interest in style declines, minimalism gains steam

CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN

  • Dizzying graphic patterns and an emphasis on loud, off-the-wall colors
  • Use of plastic and laminates, glass, metal and marble; lacquered and painted wood 
  • Unconventional proportions and abundant ornamentation
  • Playful nods to Art Deco and Pop art

POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW

VINTAGE POSTMODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS

Critics derided postmodern design as a grandstanding bid for attention and nothing of consequence. Decades later, the fact that postmodernism still has the power to provoke thoughts, along with other reactions, proves they were not entirely correct.

Postmodern design began as an architectural critique. Starting in the 1960s, a small cadre of mainly American architects began to argue that modernism, once high-minded and even noble in its goals, had become stale, stagnant and blandly corporate. Later, in Milan, a cohort of creators led by Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendinia onetime mentor to Sottsass and a key figure in the Italian Radical movement — brought the discussion to bear on design.

Sottsass, an industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, gathered a core group of young designers into a collective in 1980 they called Memphis. Members of the Memphis Group,  which would come to include Martine Bedin, Michael Graves, Marco Zanini, Shiro Kuramata, Michele de Lucchi and Matteo Thun, saw design as a means of communication, and they wanted it to shout. That it did: The first Memphis collection appeared in 1981 in Milan and broke all the modernist taboos, embracing irony, kitsch, wild ornamentation and bad taste.

Memphis works remain icons of postmodernism: the Sottsass Casablanca bookcase, with its leopard-print plastic veneer; de Lucchi’s First chair, which has been described as having the look of an electronics component; Martine Bedin’s Super lamp: a pull-toy puppy on a power-cord leash. Even though it preceded the Memphis Group’s formal launch, Sottsass’s iconic Ultrafragola mirror — in its conspicuously curved plastic shell with radical pops of pink neon — proves striking in any space and embodies many of the collective’s postmodern ideals. 

After the initial Memphis show caused an uproar, the postmodern movement within furniture and interior design quickly took off in America. (Memphis fell out of fashion when the Reagan era gave way to cool 1990’s minimalism.) The architect Robert Venturi had by then already begun a series of plywood chairs for Knoll Inc., with beefy, exaggerated silhouettes of traditional styles such as Queen Anne and Chippendale. In 1982, the new firm Swid Powell enlisted a group of top American architects, including Frank Gehry, Richard Meier, Stanley Tigerman and Venturi to create postmodern tableware in silver, ceramic and glass.

On 1stDibs, the vintage postmodern furniture collection includes chairs, coffee tables, sofas, decorative objects, table lamps and more.

Finding the Right Decorative-objects for You

Every time you move into a house or an apartment — or endeavor to refresh the home you’ve lived in for years — life for that space begins anew. The right home accent, be it the simple placement of a decorative bowl on a shelf or a ceramic vase for fresh flowers, can transform an area from drab to spectacular. But with so many materials and items to choose from, it’s easy to get lost in the process. The key to styling with antique and vintage decorative objects is to work toward making a happy home that best reflects your personal style. 

Ceramics are a versatile addition to any home. If you’ve amassed an assortment of functional pottery over the years, think of your mugs and salad bowls as decorative objects, ideal for displaying in a glass cabinet. Vintage ceramic serveware can pop along white open shelving in your dining area, while large stoneware pitchers paired with woven baskets or quilts in an open cupboard can introduce a rustic farmhouse-style element to your den.

Translucent decorative boxes or bowls made of an acrylic plastic called Lucite — a game changer in furniture that’s easy to clean and lasts long — are modern accents that are neutral enough to dress up a coffee table or desktop without cluttering it. If you’re showcasing pieces from the past, a vintage jewelry box for displaying your treasures can spark conversation: Where is the jewelry box from? Is there a story behind it?

Abstract sculptures or an antique vessel for your home library can draw attention to your book collection and add narrative charm to the most appropriate of corners. There’s more than one way to style your bookcases, and decorative objects add a provocative dynamic. “I love magnifying glasses,” says Alex Assouline, global vice president of luxury publisher Assouline, of adding one’s cherished objects to a home library. “They are both useful and decorative. Objects really elevate libraries and can also make them more personal.”

To help with personalizing your space and truly making it your own, find an extraordinary collection of decorative objects on 1stDibs.