John Dickinson Furniture
Playful, sculptural, unexpected: Illustrious designer and decorator John Dickinson created interiors, lighting fixtures, seating and other furnishings that were wholly peculiar and unlike anything seen before. The Berkeley, California, native mined design movements of bygone eras for elements he would later integrate into what would become his signature anthropomorphic work.
Dickinson was inspired by Art Deco designers such as Jean-Michel Frank, who similarly drew on the past for his extravagant pieces, and found appeal in the claw-foot tables and seating that Georgian-era furniture makers produced.
Although Dickinson attended the Parsons School of Design in New York, he returned to the West Coast following graduation. He worked for decorating firms and furniture stores, and, in 1956, he set up his own practice in San Francisco, where he reinterpreted heritage in his sculptural lamps, stools and chairs with legs that terminate in hooves or resemble bones and tree branches.
Dickinson’s spare but sophisticated furniture is often associated with a “golden age” of San Francisco decorating that includes the work of designers Charles Pfister and Michael Taylor. Wider recognition over the years owes to collectors’ interest and exhibits such as “Fantasy and Function: The Furniture of John Dickinson,” which opened at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2003.
Despite his irreverent approach, Dickinson’s pieces were luxury items. He crafted lamps of unpolished brass and tables in chalky white plaster with a resin coating. His most iconic works are his Etruscan tables with legs resembling hooved animal feet and his Three-Legged African table, which was inspired by an artifact he discovered in an import shop. Dickinson took on only handpicked, young, well-to-do clients who were willing to give him free rein to experiment with these unusual forms and industrial materials. Leading department stores like Lord & Taylor, however, were also among his clientele. In 1977, Dickinson was commissioned to design a furniture collection for Macy’s. It featured white lacquered bookcases that drew on urban architecture and table lamps with bodies that mimicked animal bones.
Owing to his untimely death, and the fact that he worked in plaster, a highly breakable material, few of Dickinson’s original pieces exist to this day. Their scarcity renders every remaining Dickinson design a valuable heirloom guaranteed to make a statement in any room.
Find vintage John Dickinson furniture on 1stDibs.
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Metal
1960s American Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Brass
1980s American Post-Modern Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Plaster
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern John Dickinson Furniture
Brass
20th Century English Victorian John Dickinson Furniture
Leather, Wood
1990s American Mid-Century Modern John Dickinson Furniture
Plaster
Early 2000s American Modern John Dickinson Furniture
Walnut
1980s American Hollywood Regency Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Plaster, Wood
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern John Dickinson Furniture
Plaster, Paint
1980s American Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Leather, Wood
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern John Dickinson Furniture
Fiberglass
1970s American Modern Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Brass, Steel
Mid-20th Century Neoclassical Revival John Dickinson Furniture
Brass
Early 2000s American Mid-Century Modern John Dickinson Furniture
Brass, Steel
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Faux Leather, Oak
1960s American Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
1960s American Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Wood
1960s American Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Wood, Upholstery, Suede, Silk
Side table in plaster raised on x-crossed legs with hoof feet.
American, c. 1965
1960s American Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Plaster
1960s American Vintage John Dickinson Furniture
Wood