Mid-Century Modern Heywood Wakefield Salem Breakfront, c1950
View Similar Items
Mid-Century Modern Heywood Wakefield Salem Breakfront, c1950
About the Item
- Creator:Heywood-Wakefield Co. (Maker)
- Dimensions:Height: 59 in (149.86 cm)Width: 48 in (121.92 cm)Depth: 18 in (45.72 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (In the Style Of)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1950
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Overall good condition, tight and sturdy with glass damage as photographed.
- Seller Location:Big Flats, NY
- Reference Number:Seller: 72144 1stDibs: LU2396324648712
Heywood-Wakefield Co.
Created by the 19th-century merger of two venerable Massachusetts furniture makers, Heywood-Wakefield was one of the largest and most successful companies of its kind in the United States. In its early decades, the firm thrived by crafting affordable and hugely popular wicker pieces in traditional and historical styles. In the midst of the Great Depression, however, Heywood-Wakefield reinvented itself, creating instead the first modernist furnishings to be widely embraced in American households.
The Heywoods were five brothers from Gardner, Massachusetts, who in 1826 started a business making wooden chairs and tables in their family shed. As their company grew, they moved into the manufacture of furniture with steam-bent wood frames and cane or wicker seats, backs and sides. In 1897, they joined forces with a local rival, the Wakefield Rattan Company, whose founder, Cyrus Wakefield, got his start on the Boston docks buying up lots of discarded rattan, which was used as cushioning material in the holds of cargo ships, and transforming it into furnishings. The conglomerate initially did well with both early American style and woven pieces, but taste began to change at the turn of the 20th century and wicker furniture fell out of fashion. In 1930, the company brought in designer Gilbert Rohde, a champion of the Art Deco style. Before departing in 1932 to lead the Michigan furniture maker Herman Miller, Rohde created well-received sleek, bentwood chairs for Heywood-Wakefield and gave its colonial pieces a touch of Art Deco flair.
Committed to the new style, Heywood-Wakefield commissioned work from an assortment of like-minded designers, including Alfons Bach, W. Joseph Carr, Leo Jiranek and Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, a Russian nobleman who had made his name in Europe creating elegant automotive body designs.
In 1936, the company introduced its “Streamline Modern” group of furnishings, presenting a look that would define the company’s wares for another 30 years. The buoyantly bright, blond wood — maple initially, later birch — came in finishes such as amber “wheat” and pink-tinted “champagne.” The forms of the pieces, at once light and substantial, with softly contoured edges and little adornment beyond artful drawer pulls and knobs, were featured in lines with names such as “Sculptura,” “Crescendo” and “Coronet.” It was forward-looking, optimistic and built to last — a draw for middle-class buyers in the Baby Boom years.
By the 1960s, Heywood-Wakefield began to be seen as “your parents’ furniture.” The last of the Modern line came out in 1966; the company went bankrupt in 1981. The truly sturdy pieces have weathered the intervening years well, having found a new audience for their blithe and happy sophistication.
Find a collection of vintage Heywood-Wakefield desks, chairs, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- Mid-Century Modern Heywood Wakefield Double Bed, Wheat Finish, circa 1950By Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Big Flats, NYA Mid-Century Modern double or full size bed by Heywood Wakefield offers birch construction in Wheat finish, maker and finish marks as photographed, circa 1950 Measures- Headboa...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsBirch
$1,160 Sale Price20% Off - Mid-Century Modern Heywood Wakefield Double Bed Frame, Wheat Finish, Circa 1950By Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Big Flats, NYA Mid-Century Modern double bed frame by Heywood Wakefield offers birch construction in Wheat finish, maker mark as photographed, c1950 Measures- Headboard 35''H x 59''W x 2''D; Foo...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsBirch
$960 Sale Price20% Off - Mid Century Modern Heywood Wakefield Two Door Bookcase in Wheat Circa 1950By Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Big Flats, NY***Ask About Reduced In-House Shipping Rates - Reliable Service & Fully Insured*** Mid Century Modern Heywood Wakefield Bookcase with Upper Shelf over Double Door Blind Cabinet in Wh...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Bookcases
MaterialsBirch
$1,160 Sale Price20% Off - MCM Heywood Wakefield School Twin Bed Frame, 20th CenturyBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Big Flats, NYA Mid-Century Modern Heywood Wakefield School twin bed offers horizontally reeded headboard and footboard, 20th century Measures: 33.25" H x 44.5" W x 79" D, inside 39.25" H x 76" ...Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsMaple
$760 Sale Price20% Off - Heywood Wakefield School White Wicker Recamier 20thCBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Big Flats, NY***Ask About Reduced In-House Shipping Rates - Reliable Service & Fully Insured*** Heywood Wakefield School White Wicker Recamier with Floral Cushion, 20thC Measures- 38.5''H x 33.5...Category
20th Century Patio and Garden Furniture
MaterialsWicker
$1,160 Sale Price20% Off - Baker Mahogany Step-Back Breakfront Cupboard, 20th CBy Baker Furniture CompanyLocated in Big Flats, NYA step-back breakfront cupboard by Baker Furniture offers flame mahogany construction with triple mullioned glass doors opening to adjustable shelf...Category
20th Century American Cabinets
MaterialsGlass, Mahogany
$4,400 Sale Price20% Off
- Heywood Wakefield Contessa Mid Century 2 Door Cabinet with Hutch, PairBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Countryside, ILHeywood Wakefield Contessa mid century 2 door cabinet with Hutch - Pair Each cabinet measures: 30 wide x 18 deep x 31.5 inches high Each...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsWood
- Charlotte Perriand Mid-Century Modern Nuage Shelving Unit by CassinaBy Cassina, Charlotte PerriandLocated in Barcelona, BarcelonaMid Centruy Modern Shelving Unit model Nuage designed by Charlotte Perriand in 1952-56. Relaunched by Cassina in 2012. Manufactured by Cassina in Italy. Authenticity and avant-...Category
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Shelves
MaterialsAluminum
$12,555 Sale Price / item20% Off - Ico Parisi, Italian Mid-Century Large Bookshelf in Rosewood and Ashwood, 1950By Ico ParisiLocated in Milan, ITIco Parisi, Italian Mid-Century Bookshelf in Rosewood and Ashwood, circa 1950 Ico Parisi was an Italian architect and designer. Born Domenico Parisi in 1916 in Palermo, Italy, he was involved in building construction and architecture in Como during his early adulthood. By the 1940s, Parisi took up filmmaking and began designing furniture in 1945, for which he would become most renowned. His designs are characterised by their Italian mid-century Modern aesthetic, constructed using soft woods often cut into boomerang-like shapes, augmented by metal slats and boldly coloured upholstery. His most prolific period was the two decades that preceded 1965, when he married and formed a design team with his wife, Luisa Aiani, in 1948. He studied architecture between 1949–1952 under Alberto Sartoris...Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Cupboards
MaterialsWood, Rosewood
- Mid-Century Heywood-Wakefield Hutch on Credenza, 1950sBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Miami, FLMid-century Heywood-Wakefield Hutch on credenza Offered for sale is a 1950s Mid-Century Modern Heywood-Wakefield Hutch on the M592 credenza. The rem...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsGlass, Wood
$1,500 Sale Price31% Off - All Solid Teak Asian 1940s Carved Two Part Cupboard Hutch Breakfront Mint!Located in Rockaway, NJAll Solid Teak Asian 1940s carved two part cup board hutch breakfront mint!Category
20th Century Hong Kong Arts and Crafts Cupboards
MaterialsMetal
- 1950s Heywood Wakefield Encore long dresser & mirror art deco mid century modernBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Virginia Beach, VAAn exceptional 1950s, Heywood Wakefield Encore 8 drawer low dresser in a beautiful wheat color. Matching mirror included. Great rounded edges with elongated drawer pulls that span ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsMaple
