Merton Brown

Merton Gershun For American Of Martinsville Table

American Midcentury Modern Dressers

Walnut Dresser With Brass Handles

Dillingham Mid Century Furniture

Mid Century Modern American Of Martinsville Dining Room

Drawer Pulls American Of Martinsville

American Of Martinsville X Inlays

Martinsville Side Table Mid Century

$2,100

Bernard Cecil GotchMerton Street, Oxford watercolour by Bernard Cecil Gotch

$1,536

$2,450

Vintage American of Martinsville Desk

By Merton Gershun

Located in Pittsburgh, PA

Vintage 3-drawer desk in bleached mahogany with a faux bamboo front. This design features an architectural-inspired linear silhouette with open-side shelving. From the sought-after a...

Category

Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Desks

Materials

Materials

Oak

H 36 in W 54 in D 19 in

Wild Louvered Front Dresser by Merton L. Gershun

By American of Martinsville, Merton Gershun

Located in Brooklyn, NY

Mid-Century Modern unit by Merton Gershun for American of Martinsville's Dania Series. Features a three-drawer coffee table base with tapered legs and brass runner, three-drawer dres...

Materials

Brass

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Merton Brown For Sale on 1stDibs

Find many varieties of an authentic merton brown available at 1stDibs. Each merton brown for sale was constructed with extraordinary care, often using wood, walnut and metal. Find 192 options for an antique or vintage merton brown now, or shop our selection of 1 modern versions for a more contemporary example of this long-cherished piece. Your living room may not be complete without a merton brown — find older editions for sale from the 20th Century and newer versions made as recently as the 21st Century. A merton brown made by Mid-Century Modern designers — as well as those associated with Louis XVI — is very popular. Merton Gershun, American of Martinsville and Dillingham Manufacturing Company each produced at least one beautiful merton brown that is worth considering.

How Much is a Merton Brown?

Prices for a merton brown start at $370 and top out at $26,000 with the average selling for $1,800.

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

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 celebrated 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.

Generations turn over, and mid-century modern remains arguably the most popular style going. 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.