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Molar Chair
Iconic Designs

Molar ChairBy Wendell Castle

About the Design

As its name suggests, the playful silhouette of the Molar chair can be attributed to an unmistakable visual inspiration: the curves and cusps that characterize the clusters of large teeth tucked in the back corners of our mouths. Kansas-born furniture maker and educator Wendell Castle (1932–2018) began to create his singular series of Molar sofas and more in 1968, when he designed his biomorphic Molar chair.

Moved by the experiments that Danish designer Verner Panton and others had been conducting with synthetic materials, Castle’s “back tooth” seat and other early designs for the collection were comprised of glass-reinforced polyester and gel-coated plastics, but his fascination with organic forms began years earlier — with wood.

A major figure of the American Studio movement, Castle boldly bridged art and furnishings like no one before him. He attended the University of Kansas for industrial design and eventually earned his MFA in sculpture in the late 1950s. In his years as a student, Castle longed to create seating and other furniture that could also be considered art, even when an instructor told him he should return to sculpture upon reviewing a cabinet he designed. His whimsical Stool Sculpture in 1959, which earned him critical acclaim and later gained a place in international exhibitions, tested the boundaries between function and fine art, while his college-era sketchbooks full of abstract designs would inform his woodworking in the years that followed.

Castle found inspiration from woodworkers such as Wharton Esherick and George Nakashima, and utilized the stack-laminate technique — in which thin sheets of wood are layered in stacks, glued together and then smoothed and cut into desired shapes before carving. This allowed him to add mass and depth to his ambiguous and venturesome work. By the mid-1960s, however, while teaching woodworking at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he temporarily tired of wood and instead wanted to introduce color and delve into the potential that other materials could afford.

Castle’s Molar chair as well as the other biomorphic seating he designed at the time emphasized playfulness and an experimental sensibility. “I’m trying to get furniture off its legs and to be itself,” Castle told Newsweek. Before he would return to wood in the 1970s following a liberating period of working with synthetics, “the father of the art furniture movement” produced cloud-shaped shelves, cabinets that resembled starfish and several hundred other fascinating pieces.

Molar Chair

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'Molar' Gel-Coated Fiberglass Loveseat Sofa by Wendell Castle, c. 1969
'Molar' Gel-Coated Fiberglass Loveseat Sofa by Wendell Castle, c. 1969

'Molar' Gel-Coated Fiberglass Loveseat Sofa by Wendell Castle, c. 1969

By Wendell Castle

Located in Los Angeles, CA

This rare early production collectors piece is a circa 1969 'Molar' settee by Wendell Castle (American, 1932-2018) made from gel-coated white fiberglass with molded white rubber foot...

Category

Vintage 1960s American Modern Settees

Materials

Fiberglass, Rubber

Post Modern Molded Fiberglass Molar Sofa by Wendell Castle
Post Modern Molded Fiberglass Molar Sofa by Wendell Castle

Post Modern Molded Fiberglass Molar Sofa by Wendell Castle

By Wendell Castle

Located in New York, NY

Iconic Postmodern Molar sofa, by Wendell Castle, executed in saturated red molded fiberglass. This example is in good condition, however does have a repaired flaw at the front of one...

Category

Mid-20th Century American Post-Modern Loveseats

Materials

Fiberglass

Wendell Castle "Castle Chair" Fiberglass Lounge Chair / Sculpture
Wendell Castle "Castle Chair" Fiberglass Lounge Chair / Sculpture

Wendell Castle "Castle Chair" Fiberglass Lounge Chair / Sculpture

By Wendell Castle

Located in Buffalo, NY

Wendell Castle Red Fiberglass "Castle Chair" red fiberglass,, aRT / sCULPTURE Iconic fiberglass chair from Wendell Castle's Molar Series in very desirable red color. Original condit...

Category

Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs

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Wendell Castle Molar Group Settee
Wendell Castle Molar Group Settee

Wendell Castle Molar Group Settee

By Wendell Castle

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An authentic Molar Group settee This example has been Re-Gel Coated.

Category

Vintage 1960s American Settees

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Molar Settee by Wendell Castle
Molar Settee by Wendell Castle

Molar Settee by Wendell Castle

By Wendell Castle

Located in Atlanta, GA

A molar settee or loveseat designed by Wendell Castle and manufactured by Beylerian, circa 1970s. The molar series is a playful design from Wendell Castle...

Category

Vintage 1970s American Modern Settees

Materials

Fiberglass

Molar Settee by Wendell Castle
Molar Settee by Wendell Castle

Molar Settee by Wendell Castle

$5,910Sale Price|40% Off

Molar Settee by Wendell Castle

By Wendell Castle

Located in Los Angeles, CA

A rare molar settee designed by Wendell Castle and manufactured by Beylerian, circa 1970s.    

Category

Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Loveseats

Materials

Fiberglass

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Rare, original, molar settee / loveseat and pair of molar chairs designed by Wendell Castle and manufactured by Beylerian, circa 1970s. All pieces retain ...

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More Wendell Castle Designs
Molar Chair
Molar Chair
Average Price
$7,106
Number Available
8
Molar Chair
Materials
Fiberglass, Plastic
Styles
Mid Century Modern
As its name suggests, the playful silhouette of the Molar chair can be attributed to an unmistakable visual inspiration: the curves and cusps that characterize the clusters of large teeth tucked in the back corners of our mouths. Kansas-born furniture maker and educator Wendell Castle (1932–2018) began to create his singular series of Molar sofas and more in 1968, when he designed his biomorphic Molar chair. Moved by the experiments that Danish designer Verner Panton and others had been condu...
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