Antique Heywood Wakefield Stick Wicker Set
View Similar Items
Antique Heywood Wakefield Stick Wicker Set
About the Item
- Creator:Heywood-Wakefield Co. (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 35 in (88.9 cm)Width: 68 in (172.72 cm)Depth: 34 in (86.36 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 3
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1930s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Old Saybrook, CT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU92395246783
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.
- Art Deco Three Piece Rattan / Wicker Suite by The Heywood Wakefield CompanyBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Nashua, NHA three piece suite of Art Deco Rattan furniture,C.1929, American, Heywood Wakefield Co. Gardner, Ma.This set of rattan is also known as stick wicker and described as modernistic in their 1929 Furniture catalogue. The three pieces are done in a white painted finishing and are all in very good condition. The fabrics are in a light background decorated with an embroidered style Sea Horse / sea life design and is also in very good condition. The set consists of a three seat sofa, an extra large arm chair with magazine pocket and its large companion arm chair, As per the catalogue: these deep seated chairs were modeled on a Chinese boat chair that was fashionable in the 1920s.The matching triple hump curved back sofa continues this modern movement with its high curved arms. A very impressive, comfortable and stylish matching suite. The sofa measures: 34.75" Ht. x 68.25" W. x 33.5"D. x seat Ht 16" The large arm chair: 34.25" Ht. x 33" W. x 42" D. x seat Ht. 16.5": The small arm chair...Category
Vintage 1920s American Art Deco Living Room Sets
MaterialsRattan, Reed, Wicker
- Stick Wicker 3 Piece Sofa and Chair EnsembleLocated in Sheffield, MA3 piece sectional sofa and one chair. Vintage Art Deco style two strand stick rattan 3 piece sectional sofa and armchair with arched arms and clean wicker or rattan like design. st...Category
Early 20th Century Art Deco Living Room Sets
MaterialsWicker
$3,500 / set - Close Woven Wicker Chaise Lounge in Natural Finish, Heywood Wakefield CompanyBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Nashua, NHA grand sized close woven reed chaise lounge by the Heywood Wakefield Company of Gardner, Ma. C. 1920 This chaise is beautifully woven in a handsome natural finished reed and accented by woven paint decorated reeds in red, black and green. The chaise has a large close woven back containing a beautiful decorated diamond design, large comfortable arms coming down to a large woven skirt which is designed in a decorative manner to both hold the chaise cushion...Category
Early 20th Century American Arts and Crafts Chaise Longues
MaterialsReed, Wicker
- Antique Victorian Heywood Wakefield (attr) Ball & Stick Wicker Chair, Circa 1890By Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Cookeville, TNA truly wonderfully preserved example of Victorian stick and ball fiddlehead style. Great Patina. This fanciful hand made chair features ball and stick designs, skilled scrollwork, s...Category
Antique Late 19th Century Chairs
MaterialsWicker, Paint
- 4 Piece Wicker Patio Seating EnsembleLocated in Sheffield, MALloyd Loom flat arm 4 piece rattan seating ensemble consisting of 3 seat sofa, 2 matching arm chairs and a small round matching occasional table. All seating have generous proportion...Category
Late 20th Century Unknown Patio and Garden Furniture
MaterialsWicker
$5,400 / set - American Victorian 5 Piece Wicker Porch Seating EnsembleLocated in Sheffield, MAA rare find -- An American Victorian (5) piece wicker porch seating set including: sofa, matching rocking chair, arm chair with ottoman and glass top coff...Category
Antique 19th Century American Victorian Patio and Garden Furniture
MaterialsWicker