Antique Dutch Oak Locker Cabinet / Post Office, 1920s
Located in Nijmegen, NL
post office in the city of Nuenen. The interior dimensions of the compartments are: D W H 30 x 25 x 38
Oak
Sold
Post Office Desk
Located in Los Angeles, CA
French Post Office Desk
Steel
French Post Office Desk
Located in Los Angeles, CA
36 Shelf Post Office Desk with Swivel Stool
Steel
Post Office Sorting Station
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Polished Steel Desk, used by French Postal Service to sort Mail. 25 Compartments, with Work surface, and two drawers, and Attached Pivotal Stool with Leather cushioned seat
Steel
French Post Office Desk
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Unique Polished steel Desk
Steel
Wigu Studios Costner Collection CC Cabinet With Antique Post Office Boxes
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
postman. This is the last of a small limited edition of 25, design made from thirty 1945-1975 vintage Post
Walnut
Polished Steel Post Office Desk
Located in Los Angeles, CA
25 Compartments Shelves Unit
0ne Drawer
Pivotal Stool with Leather Seat
Steel
Sold|$850
1910 Mailboxes from a Post Office
Located in Tarrytown, NY
1910 Brass Mailboxes from a post office.
Brass
Sold|$2,327
English Midcentury Beech Post Office Drawers
Located in Gloucester, GB
English midcentury beech post office drawers - Solid beech with teak top - Original brass card
Beech
Vintage Post Office Apartment Mailbox Metal Cabinet with Eagle Doors - Set of 2
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Vintage Post Office Apartment Mailbox Metal Cabinets with Eagle Doors by Security Mfg. Co - Set of
Metal
Sold|$1,750
Antique British Pine Post Office Cupboard
Located in Calgary, Alberta
as a British Post Office cupboard, but we think it started life out as a kitchen larder or pie safe
Wood
French post office desk, attributed to Pierre Charreau
Located in Danville, CA
Pierre Chareau (1883-1950), was a French architect and designer who became famous after having designed his incomparable Maison de Verre in Paris.
19th C Welsh Mahogany & Pine Post Office Sorting Shelves
Located in Staffordshire, GB
circa 1880 19th C Welsh Mahogany & Pine Post Office Sorting shelves with thick brass dividing
Brass
Sold|$1,300
Post Office Drawers, England, circa 1910
Located in Culver City, CA
Post office drawers England circa 1910 Four drawer chest with sloped top. Measures: 34.75
Wood
Turn of Century Post Office Clerks Atelier Chest Drawers Writing Desk
Located in Hyattsville, MD
Early Century Post Office Clerks Ephemera Chest, Tabletop Atelier. As End Table as well with Pull
Hardwood
Post Modern Lou Hodges California Design Group Wall Unit Desk Oak Cabinet
By Lou Hodges
Located in Hyattsville, MD
configuration. The seven shelves can be moved around, or removed and the drop-leaf desk bay and low cabinet bay
Oak
Post Modern White Stucco Sculpted Etagere
Located in Clarksboro, NJ
This listing is for a Post Modern White Stucco Sculpted Etagere. Featuring a curved white stucco
Glass, Stucco, Paint
Sold|$4,806
Post-Modern Ladder Shelves
By Ettore Sottsass
Located in London, GB
Post-Modern ladder shelves with steel frame and formica shelves, Italian, 1980s.
Steel
Sold|$1,779 / item
Post modern Memphis style bookcase, Netherlands 1970s
By Marcel Breuer, Memphis Group, Ettore Sottsass
Located in ECHT, NL
1970s Post modern modular shelving units. Designed in the manner of the Memphis group and the
Metal
Post Modern Italian Brass & Glass Hairpin Etagere
By Milo Baughman
Located in Clarksboro, NJ
This listing is for a Post Modern Italian Brass & Glass Hairpin Etagere. Featuring a three tier
Brass
Post-modern Library Shelf System, Italy, 1980
By Ettore Sottsass
Located in Vienna, AT
Graphical shelf system, Italy circa 1980 Very rare suspension, wall mounted shelf for large books. Well-sized black shelf with lots of space for especially larger books. It looks ve...
Steel
Post Modern Curved Bookcase Etagere Reclaimed Douglas Fir
Located in Rio Vista, CA
Fantastic post modern bookcase or etagere display hand-crafted by artisans from reclaimed douglas
Fir
Bieffeplast Yellow Metal Shelve System, Post-Modern Italian Design, 1970
By Bieffeplast
Located in Antwerp, BE
Bieffeplast yellow metal shelving unit, post-modern Italian design, 1970 Memphis style piece
Steel
Pop art Post modern Pink Gloss Laminate floating wall mounted shelf unit
By Memphis Milano
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Beautiful post modern custom made bubblegum pink gloss laminate floating wall mounted shelf unit
Laminate, Plywood
Post - Modern "John IId" Shelving Unit by Philippe Starck for Disform, 1980
By Philippe Starck
Located in Barcelona, Cataluna
In 1991 he participated in the construction of the Groningen Museum,6 built the Le Baron Vert office
Metal
Sold|$1,380
USM Haller Hi Fi Cabinet, Black
By Usm Haller
Located in Santa Fe, NM
USM Haller Cabinet 1980's. An original! Set up for Hi Fi use maintaining 4 shelves that could
Metal
Post Modern Iron Shelf Unit with Extendable Corner Shelf and Small Rolling Cart
Located in Chicago, IL
A one of a kind post modern iron shelving unit sourced in the south of France from a psychiatrist’s
Iron
Post-modern Ligne Roset Ebonized Minimal Wall Unit, Shelves, Drawer, desk France
By Ligne Roset
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Ligne Roset desk / wall unit Ligne Roset Postmodern black lacquered walnut minimal wall unit with drawers and pull-out desk. Extremely rare piece. Gorgeous monochrome, graphic qualit...
Wood
Post-Modern Secretaire in Cork by Peter Maly, Serie 5 for COR, circa 1975
By Peter Maly
Located in Berlin, DE
A rare Post-Modern secretaire designed by Peter Maly as part of the Serie 5 collection, dating to
Beech, Cork
Cubitec by Doron Lachisch Plastic Storage Cabinet
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Cubitec Shelving system designed by Doron Lachisch and sold through DWR. Very useful and versatile shelving system. Very nice clean condition.
Plastic
Original "Carlton" Cabinet/ Sculpture, designed by Ettore Sottsass
By Ettore Sottsass
Located in Berlin, Berlin
. Wood construction with a coloured laminate surface, handmade in Italy. The cabinet includes two pull
Laminate
Post modern 2 drawer textured lacquer cream white desk
By Karl Springer
Located in Brooklyn, NY
bases on each end. Great post modern design. Comes with clear glass top that covers the top surface over
Hardwood, Lacquer
Antique Sheraton Style Burlwood Posted Brass Gallery Crescent Writing Desk
Located in Chicago, IL
Antique French Sheraton style Burlwood 5 drawer posted brass gallery crescent writing desk
Metal, Brass
Post Modern Bookcase, Thick Glass and Lacquered Wood by Carlo Montini
Located in Brussels, BE
Post Modern Bookcase, Thick Glass and Lacquered Wood by Carlo Montini
Glass, Wood
Pair of Custom Blue and Grey Industrial Postmodern Cabinets / Display Cases
By Knoll, Ettore Sottsass
Located in Houston, TX
Pair of custom blue and silver grey industrial postmodern cabinets/ display cases. Each piece
Wood
English 1840s Mahogany Four-Tiered Trolley with Turned Side Posts and Casters
Located in Atlanta, GA
An English mahogany four-tiered trolley from the mid 19th century, with turned side posts, low
Brass
Vintage Post Modern Art Deco Style Console Desk - Burl Laminate Entry Table
By Roche Bobois, Ligne Roset
Located in Decatur, GA
Vintage post modern/art deco style entry way desk or console table. Versatile piece in form and
Laminate, Burl
Italian Post-Modern Bookcase with Tubular Metal and Moving Shelves, 1990-2000s
Located in MIlano, IT
Italian post-modern Bookcase with tubular metal and moving shelves, 1990-2000s Bookcase with
Metal
Substantial Post-War Unix Sectional Modular Oak Library Bookcase Shop Fitting
By Phoenix
Located in Sherborne, Dorset
An enormous bank of ‘Unix’ stacking glazed library bookcases, comprising of an impressive 26 sections and 114 boxes to fill! Retailed by the Phoenix Gallery of St. Martins Lane, Char...
Glass, Oak
Lou Hodges Desk, Solid Oak, California Design Group, Post Modern, circa 1980
By Lou Hodges
Located in Decatur, GA
Lou Hodges handcrafted solid oak desk for California Design Group, signed and date 1980. This piece has been professionally restored and attended to by our team - it is in excellent ...
Oak
1930s Italian Art Deco Desk Writing Table Teaching Post Drawers in Solid Oak
Located in Vigonza, Padua
Code: FM49 Desk Art Deco of the early 20th century. With eight deep side drawers, (the number four of which with central locking key) and a large central drawer. Of solid oak, resto...
Oak
Postmodern Sculptural Cream Laminate Writing Desk with Waterfall Base, 1990s
Located in Philadelphia, PA
this curved element with a clean-lined cabinet support on the opposite side, creating a visually
Laminate
Self Bookcase by Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Vitra, France, 2005
By Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec
Located in VILLEURBANNE, FR
Designed as a tribute to Charlotte Perriand by Ronan & Erwan BOUROULLEC, this Self model bookcase was designed in the 2000s and is no longer produced today. Entirely dismountabl...
Plastic
Three Tier Wrapped and Woven Rattan Console Table
By Danny Ho Fong, Tropi-cal
Located in New Windsor, NY
When one wants to add some texture to any room with natural fibers. Woven rattan is quite durable and has amazing strength. Circa 1980. Great as a sofa table, hallway entrance, or un...
Cane, Rattan, Plywood
'Signatur' Executive Desk in Honey Oak, Tord Bjorklund for IKEA, Sweden, c. 1980
By IKEA
Located in Deland, FL
early IKEA designs - Make it yours today and transform your office space to new aesthetic heights. Note
Oak
Compass Writing Desk Bureau by Pedro Miralles Claver for Punt Mobles, circa 1990
Located in Barcelona, Cataluna
The compass desk was designed by Pedro Miralles Claver for Punt Mobles, circa 1990. He studies at the Domus Academy in Milan and worked with Philippe Stark in Paris. The Compás Desk ...
Cherry
Compass Writing Desk Bureau by Pedro Miralles Claver for Punt Mobles, circa 1990
Located in Barcelona, Cataluna
The compass desk was designed by Pedro Miralles Claver for Punt Mobles, circa 1990. He studies at the Domus Academy in Milan and worked with Philippe Stark in Paris. The Compás Desk ...
Cherry
Sold|$3,850 / set
1990s Postmodern Black and White Interchangeable Desks, a Pair
By Lane Acclaim
Located in Bensalem, PA
Lane furniture matching pair of black and white desks can interchange pieces or keeps as is.
Glass, Wood
Gianfranco Frattini for Bernini Italian Walnut Segretaire Chest of Drawers, 1997
By Bernini, Gianfranco Frattini
Located in Reggio Emilia, IT
1962, emphasises Gianfranco Frattini’s great design skills and the skilful cabinet-making skills of
Walnut, Glass
1980's Versatile Multi positions Portable Dewk by Herman Miller
By Herman Miller
Located in San Diego, CA
and down , and the middle post has a foot pedal that moves up and down great quality and durability
Metal
Marzio Cecchi Steel Desk Called "Diapason" for Studio Most Firenze, 1968-1970
By Marzio Cecchi, Studio Most
Located in Brussels, BE
Pur and sober desk by Cecchi from the 1970s. All in aluminium this desk is a perfect example of Industrial design.
Aluminum
Hekman 3-Drawer Burlwood Desk Console, circa 1970s
By Hekman Furniture
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Parsons style desk or console in burlwood by Hekman, made circa 1970s. This piece features 3 front drawers with dovetail joinery. It is in excellent vintage condition with light norm...
Burl
"Tyko" Lacquered Wood Bookshelf by Manfredo Massironi for Nikol International
By Manfredo Massironi
Located in Brussels, BE
bookshelf in lacquered wood for Nikol International in the 1970s, with four removable black cabinets.
Wood
Carlton Memphis Milano Bookcase or Room Divider by Ettore Sottsass, 1981
By Ettore Sottsass
Located in Chicago, IL
Memphis Milano Carlton bookcase by Ettore Sottsass. Post-Modern, sculptural, multicolor "Carlton
Laminate, Wood
Multicolored "Guide" shelving unit by Niels Gammelgaard for Ikea, Sweden, 1985
By Niels Gammelgaard, IKEA
Located in Lyon, FR
. A post-modern design classic known for its elegance, sturdiness and practicality. Minimalist
Metal
1980s Multicolor Pencil Shelf by Pierre Sala
By Pierre Sala
Located in Brooklyn, NY
child's room but playful and whimsical enough to be in a living rom, office, or bedroom. In very good
Wood
French modernist desk in solid oak ceruse from the 40's style Jacques adnet
Located in Ternay, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
Imposing modernist desk of the 50s in the taste of the work of Jean Michel Frank. Structure in solid oak and veneer, ceruse work on the whole desk. It is composed of three lateral dr...
Oak
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
CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
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 Mendini — a 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.
Of all the vintage storage cabinets and antique case pieces 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 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. Alternatively, apothecary cabinets are charming case goods similar in size to early dressers or commodes but with uniquely sized shelving and (often numerous) drawers.
Whether you’re seeking a playful sideboard that features colored glass and metal details, 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.