Salterini Zig Zag Chairs

The postwar boom in prosperity and leisure time led to the expansion of homes in America to include patios, which needed to be furnished with stylish outdoor furniture. Launched in 1934, Salterini offered some of the most exquisite, high-end outdoor furniture of the mid-century period.

While John B. Salterini designed ornate wrought-iron garden furniture for patios and lawns, he specifically sought to match the forms of indoor furniture and also advocated the use of his furniture indoors “because it brings into your home the freshness and gaiety of a flowery summer garden” (per his print advertisements).

After emigrating from Italy to New York, Salterini worked in journalism at first, editing a newspaper in Syracuse. When he moved to New York City, he worked in glass manufacturing and then entered into the production of wrought-iron furniture as a partner in Salterini & Gallo. When that company shuttered, he launched his own eponymous firm in 1934.

Over the course of his career, Salterini designed a wide range of furniture, from tables and chairs to chaise longues, ottomans and benches. And his influences were equally wide as well. His work is often identified as mid-century modern — the Clamshell line, designed for Salterini’s company by like-minded Italian architect and industrial designer Maurizio Tempestini, boasts soft curves and cocoon-like shells that strike a sharp contrast with the solidity of wrought iron and resemble the zany chair designs emerging during the postwar period from designers like Pierre Paulin and Arne Jacobsen.

The furniture from John B. Salterini Company also combined organic and geometric forms, one of the mid-century design movement’s defining features. But Salterini was equally influenced by the Gothic Revival and Art Deco movements, incorporating their signature flourishes like intricate lace-like patterns, delicate vine leaves and protruding scrolls into his French Provincial Group’s glass-topped tables and chairs. One of his most ornate and ostentatious designs is the Peacock double chaise longue, with its elaborate spokes and arching back.

Wrought iron was considered the best material for outdoor use because of its comparative lightness and pliability to other metals. The term “wrought” means made by hand, as opposed to “cast” iron, which was made using molds. Salterini’s high-end handcrafted furniture, with names like Park Avenue Group — promoted for indoor use and photographed as such for the firm’s catalogues — attracted wealthy buyers from across the country. They were drawn to his ability to make a metal like wrought iron look almost ethereal and elegant, and the way he incorporated the popular styles and design principles of the day into his pieces. That Salterini’s garden furniture can be used indoors and look completely natural is a rare feat.

Find vintage Salterini lounge chairs, tables, patio and garden furniture, and more on 1stDibs.

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.

Whether you're sitting around a firepit, playing games or enjoying a meal, outdoor furniture is crucial for a successful social gathering.

We’ve come a long way from the rudimentary patio and garden furniture of yore, which, in the Ancient Roman and Greek eras, meant stone slabs. Back then, your grandiose patch of outdoor greenery was a place to relax and admire the manicured hedges and fruit orchards. Fortunately, advancements in the design of outdoor furniture as well as the burgeoning of artisan landscape designers have made it easier to do so since then.

The need for outdoor chairs, tables and benches to withstand varying weather conditions means that many contemporary offerings prioritize durability over form. For a touch of glamour in your garden, antique and vintage pieces from France or Italy, which have already proven they can stand the test of time, can introduce an elegant sensibility to your outdoor space.

In the late 1940s, Hawaii-based architect Walter Lamb began fashioning outdoor furniture from nautical rope and metal tubing rescued from sunken Pearl Harbor ships. Although his designs were originally intended as gifts for returning GIs, his creations gained such popularity that they were picked up by the then-new Brown Jordan furniture company of California.

Lamb’s adventurous creations inspired many designers who followed. The seating and tables crafted by other mid-century furniture makers noted for their seminal patio and garden works — a list that includes Hendrik Van Keppel and Taylor Green, Russell Woodard and Woodard Furniture, Maurizio Tempestini and Richard Schultz — remain highly sought after by collectors today.

Whether it’s wicker couches for your screened porch or wrought-iron armchairs for fireside drinks, find the antique and vintage patio and garden furniture you need to wind down the day or welcome the morning sun on 1stDibs.