David Hicks Tables
Let there be no doubt about it, suave as he was, with his bespoke suits, slicked-back hair and patrician good looks, David Nightingale Hicks (1929–98) was a committed revolutionary. Composing rooms of arresting opulence through his magisterial orchestration of cacophonous colors and patterns, Italian modern mixed with Louis XV furnishings and counterintuitive plays of scale, he forever rocked the stately world of interior design.
As a zealot of style, he took no prisoners. “Dedication to design means ruthless criticism and losing friends,” he once declared. He was not exaggerating. His wife claimed that he conceived his signature high-gloss brown walls as a result of her throwing glasses of Coca-Cola at him during their alarmingly frequent marital spats.
By the time he was 25, Hicks, who had attended London’s Central School of Art and Design and endured a couple of arid years in the art department of the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, had the crème de la crème of London society as clients — and he was being entertained by them! Within a few years, he was courting Lady Pamela Mountbatten, the daughter of Lord Mountbatten, the last British viceroy of India, and the uncle of Prince Phillip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband. They married in 1960 and acquired Britwell, a Georgian pile in Oxfordshire, which became the family seat, design lab and showplace.
The first truly modern interior Hicks ever designed was Lord John Cholmondeley’s penthouse overlooking Hyde Park, in 1967. The graphic boldness of the scheme — brightly colored walls outlined in dark hues and dynamic geometric-patterned carpets — echoed the energy and attitude of the hard-edge painting that was then at the fore. Here, as in all his interiors, he included what he called “tablescapes,” vignettes of artfully arranged objects and artworks that added interest and life to the room. They were soon widely copied. Another landmark interior came in the early 1970s, when he revived Baronscourt, a grand neoclassical house in Northern Ireland, by giving it an entirely contemporary decor.
In addition to his immense creative talent, Hicks had a keen entrepreneurial acumen and vision. While he could have made a fine business simply designing grand homes for the wealthy and titled, he expanded his studio to include offices, boutiques, restaurants, hotels and nightclubs. He had showrooms all over the world, and he embarked on licensing agreements for ranges of vividly hued, geometric-patterned sheets and towels, clothes, umbrellas and bags.
The British designer was as daring as he was debonair, deploying a brazen mix of colors and patterns that came to define the groovy-glamorous interiors of the Swinging Sixties.
Find David Hicks furniture on 1stDibs.
1960s Italian Modern Vintage David Hicks Tables
1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage David Hicks Tables
Wood, Mahogany
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage David Hicks Tables
Chrome
1980s American Modern Vintage David Hicks Tables
Brass, Chrome
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern David Hicks Tables
Rattan, Wood
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern David Hicks Tables
Marble, Wrought Iron
1960s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage David Hicks Tables
Metal
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern David Hicks Tables
Wood
20th Century Polish Mid-Century Modern David Hicks Tables
Wood
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern David Hicks Tables
Brass
1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Vintage David Hicks Tables
Oak
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage David Hicks Tables
Walnut
1970s English Modern Vintage David Hicks Tables
Steel
1970s Post-Modern Vintage David Hicks Tables
Brass
Late 20th Century English Mid-Century Modern David Hicks Tables
Brass
20th Century English Mid-Century Modern David Hicks Tables
Crystal, Aluminum
Late 20th Century English David Hicks Tables
Brass
1960s Vintage David Hicks Tables
Steel
