Mid Century Sideboard Edward Wormley
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Bronze
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Mahogany
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Elm
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Fir, Leather, Maple, Walnut
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Mahogany, Lacquer
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Mahogany
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Paper, Walnut
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Buffets
Mahogany
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Secretaires
Rosewood, Wood, Walnut
Vintage 1950s Mid-Century Modern Slipper Chairs
Bouclé
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery, Wood
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Bookcases
Walnut
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Chrome
Vintage 1950s Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Mahogany, Walnut
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
Leather, Walnut
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Metal
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Stone
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Wood
2010s American Modern Sideboards
Wood, Walnut
2010s American Modern Sideboards
Wood, Teak
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Dressers
Rosewood
Mid-20th Century Dutch Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Birch, Teak
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Leather, Mahogany
People Also Browsed
2010s German Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Brass
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Qing Historical Memorabilia
Wood
Vintage 1920s British Art Deco Wardrobes and Armoires
Birdseye Maple, Walnut
Early 20th Century Chinese Qing Historical Memorabilia
Wood
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Bookcases
Brass
2010s North American Modern Sofas
Hardwood
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Swivel Chairs
Mohair
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Chrome
Early 20th Century Asian Islamic Textiles
Linen
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
Mahogany
2010s Mexican Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Wood
Mid-20th Century French Brutalist Chairs
Elm
Vintage 1950s Swiss Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Metal
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Wardrobes and Armoires
Brass
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Late Victorian Scholar's Objects
Stone
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Chairs
Steel
Recent Sales
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
Brass
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
Steel
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Metal
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Marble, Brass
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Wood
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Leather, Mahogany, Wood
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Aluminum
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Mahogany
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Wood
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Mahogany
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Leather, Walnut
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Grasscloth, Walnut, Fir
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Leather, Mahogany
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Nickel
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1960s Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Walnut
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Marble, Brass
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Walnut
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Brass
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Mahogany
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Marble
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Travertine, Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Wood
Early 20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Buffets
Burlap, Mahogany
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Leather, Rattan, Mahogany, Walnut
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Elm, Lacquer
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Rosewood, Walnut
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Leather, Mahogany, Rattan, Walnut
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
Walnut
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Wood
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Buffets
Cane, Mahogany
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Nickel
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Cane, Maple, Walnut, Pine
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Elm
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Brass
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Nickel
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
Brass
Vintage 1950s Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
Rosewood, Velvet
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Credenzas
Brass
Mid Century Sideboard Edward Wormley For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Mid Century Sideboard Edward Wormley?
Edward Wormley for sale on 1stDibs
As the longtime director of design for the Dunbar furniture company, Edward Wormley was, along with such peers as George Nelson at Herman Miller Inc., and Florence Knoll of Knoll Inc., one of the leading forces in bringing modern design into American homes in the mid-20th century. Not an axiomatic modernist, Wormley deeply appreciated traditional design, and consequently his vintage seating, storage cabinets, bar carts and other work has an understated warmth and a timeless quality that sets it apart from other furnishings of the era.
Wormley was born in rural Illinois and as a teenager took correspondence courses from the New York School of Interior Design. He later attended the Art Institute of Chicago but ran out of money for tuition before he could graduate. Marshall Field hired Wormley in 1930 to design a line of reproduction 18th-century English furniture; the following year he was hired by the Indiana-based Dunbar, where he quickly distinguished himself. It was a good match.
Dunbar was an unusual firm: it did not use automated production systems; its pieces were mostly hand-constructed. For his part, Wormley did not use metal as a major component of furniture; he liked craft elements such as caned seatbacks, tambour drawers, or the woven-wood cabinet fronts seen on his Model 5666 sideboard of 1956. He designed two lines for Dunbar each year — one traditional, one modern — until 1944, by which time the contemporary pieces had become the clear best sellers.
Many of Wormley’s signature pieces — chairs, sofas, tables and more — are modern interpretations of traditional forms. His 1946 Riemerschmid Chair — an example is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art — recapitulates a late 19th-century German design. The long, slender finials of his Model 5580 dining chairs are based on those of Louis XVI chairs; his Listen-to-Me Chaise (1948) has a gentle Rococo curve; the “Precedent” line that Wormley designed for Drexel Furniture in 1947 is a simplified, pared-down take on muscular Georgian furniture. But he could invent new forms, as his Magazine table of 1953, with its bent wood pockets, and his tiered Magazine Tree (1947), both show. And Wormley kept his eye on design currents, creating a series of tables with tops that incorporate tiles and roundels by the great modern ceramicists Otto and Gertrud Natzler.
As the vintage items on 1stDibs demonstrate, Edward Wormley conceived of a subdued sort of modernism, designing furniture that fits into any decorating scheme and does not shout for attention.
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.
Finding the Right storage-case-pieces for You
Of all the antique and vintage case pieces and storage cabinets that have become popular in modern interiors over the years, dressers, credenzas and cabinets have long been home staples, perfect for routine storage or protection of personal items.
In the mid-19th century, cabinetmakers would mimic styles originating in the Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI eras for their dressers, bookshelves and other structures, and, later, simpler, streamlined wood designs allowed these “case pieces” or “case goods” — any furnishing that is unupholstered and has some semblance of a storage component — to blend into the background of any interior.
Mid-century modern furniture enthusiasts will cite the tall modular wall units crafted in teak and other sought-after woods of the era by the likes of George Nelson, Poul Cadovius and Finn Juhl. For these highly customizable furnishings, designers of the day delivered an alternative to big, heavy bookcases by considering the use of space — and, in particular, walls — in new and innovative ways. Mid-century modern credenzas, which, long and low, evolved from tables that were built as early as the 14th century in Italy, typically have no legs or very short legs and have grown in popularity as an alluring storage option over time.
Although the name immediately invokes images of clothing, dressers were initially created in Europe for a much different purpose. This furnishing was initially a flat-surfaced, low-profile side table equipped with a few drawers — a common fixture used to dress and prepare meats in English kitchens throughout the Tudor period. The drawers served as perfect utensil storage. It wasn’t until the design made its way to North America that it became enlarged and equipped with enough space to hold clothing and cosmetics. The very history of storage case pieces is a testament to their versatility and well-earned place in any room.
In the spirit of positioning your case goods center stage, decluttering can now be design-minded.
A contemporary case piece with open shelving and painted wood details can prove functional as a storage unit as easily as it can a room divider. Whether you’re seeking a playful sideboard made of colored glass and metals, an antique Italian hand-carved storage cabinet or a glass-door vitrine to store and show off your collectibles, there are options for you on 1stDibs.