Vintage Wood Shaver
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wicker, Wood
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wrought Iron
1960s American Scandinavian Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wicker, Wood
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1960s American Organic Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wrought Iron
Mid-20th Century Japanese Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Walnut
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Metal
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Cut Steel
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wrought Iron
1940s American Art Deco Vintage Wood Shaver
Paint
1980s Contemporary Vintage Wood Shaver
Mixed Media, Oil
1980s Contemporary Vintage Wood Shaver
Mixed Media, Oil
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
People Also Browsed
21st Century and Contemporary American Industrial Vintage Wood Shaver
Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Textile
2010s Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Hardwood, Oak
2010s South African Minimalist Vintage Wood Shaver
Hardwood
21st Century and Contemporary French Brutalist Vintage Wood Shaver
Oak
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Brass, Bronze, Enamel, Nickel
19th Century American Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1910s French Country Vintage Wood Shaver
Steel
2010s Austrian Jugendstil Vintage Wood Shaver
Silk
2010s American Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Oak
21st Century and Contemporary American Scandinavian Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Steel, Zinc
2010s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Oak
1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Oak
2010s Brazilian Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Leather, Textile, Upholstery, Laminate, Hardwood
21st Century and Contemporary American Scandinavian Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Gold, Brass
19th Century French Other Vintage Wood Shaver
Oak, Pine
Recent Sales
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Steel
1950s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wrought Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron, Metal
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Aluminum
1950s American Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wrought Iron
Late 20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Chrome, Aluminum
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wrought Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wrought Iron
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Wrought Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Cut Steel
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Metal, Chrome
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Aluminum
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Aluminum
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Laminate, Walnut
Late 20th Century American Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Metal
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Brass, Chrome
1960s American Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1970s American Vintage Wood Shaver
Wrought Iron
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Metal
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Wood Shaver
Iron
Vintage Wood Shaver For Sale on 1stDibs
How Much is a Vintage Wood Shaver?
Arthur Umanoff for sale on 1stDibs
Though much of Arthur Umanoff’s furniture is marked by a no-frills simplicity common in American mid-century modern design, his work is anything but one-note. Over the course of a prolific career, Umanoff designed everything from case pieces to candleholders to dining chairs in iron, leather, walnut, wicker and more. With furnishings for a broad range of manufacturers throughout the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s, Umanoff continued a thread of sculptural elegance and textural sensitivity through his designs.
After graduating from Pratt Institute in the early 1950s, Umanoff experimented mostly with wood furniture before landing a job at Post Modern Ltd, a New York manufacturer of wrought-iron furniture. There he produced furnishings that married wrought iron with wood and plastic, creating functional pieces free of utilitarian bulkiness. Umanoff continued his experimentation with mixed materials through a partnership with Shaver Howard, for whom he designed wine racks in combinations of iron, leather and wicker.
When Shaver Howard bought Boyeur Scott, Umanoff conceived several furniture designs for the brand, including the 1964 Granada collection, whose curlicue iron bases, visible through glass tops, stand out as some of his most ornate and decorative work. Indeed, much of Umanoff’s oeuvre is far more simplistic, like iron-and-pine armchairs for The Elton Co. or low-backed, slatted-seat barstools with slender iron legs for Raymor.
Umanoff was fluent, too, in the more sumptuous modernism of the era: In the mid-1960s, he designed the 2405 and 4449 armchairs for Madison Furniture Industries. Popular in offices, the walnut-framed, leather-upholstered seats, which could have been mistaken for the seductive Scandinavian modern seating of the era, were reportedly the jumping-off point for Captain Kirk’s iconic seat on Star Trek.
Even as he is among the mid-century modern designers you may not know, with work across such a range of styles and manufacturers (most no longer in business), Umanoff, who died in 1985, leaves a legacy that is fascinatingly diverse and at times enticingly elusive, making his work intriguing objects for collectors.
Find vintage Arthur Umanoff furniture today on 1stDibs.
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.