Walnut and Chrome Planter by Edward Wormley
View Similar Items
Walnut and Chrome Planter by Edward Wormley
About the Item
- Creator:Dunbar Furniture (Manufacturer),Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 17.25 in (43.82 cm)Diameter: 16 in (40.64 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1960s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Sagaponack, NY
- Reference Number:Seller: 9473.0011stDibs: LU8903782714
Edward Wormley
As the longtime director of design for the Dunbar furniture company, Edward Wormley was, along with such peers as George Nelson at Herman Miller Inc., and Florence Knoll of Knoll Inc., one of the leading forces in bringing modern design into American homes in the mid-20th century. Not an axiomatic modernist, Wormley deeply appreciated traditional design, and consequently his vintage seating, storage cabinets, bar carts and other work has an understated warmth and a timeless quality that sets it apart from other furnishings of the era.
Wormley was born in rural Illinois and as a teenager took correspondence courses from the New York School of Interior Design. He later attended the Art Institute of Chicago but ran out of money for tuition before he could graduate. Marshall Field hired Wormley in 1930 to design a line of reproduction 18th-century English furniture; the following year he was hired by the Indiana-based Dunbar, where he quickly distinguished himself. It was a good match.
Dunbar was an unusual firm: it did not use automated production systems; its pieces were mostly hand-constructed. For his part, Wormley did not use metal as a major component of furniture; he liked craft elements such as caned seatbacks, tambour drawers, or the woven-wood cabinet fronts seen on his Model 5666 sideboard of 1956. He designed two lines for Dunbar each year — one traditional, one modern — until 1944, by which time the contemporary pieces had become the clear best sellers.
Many of Wormley’s signature pieces — chairs, sofas, tables and more — are modern interpretations of traditional forms. His 1946 Riemerschmid Chair — an example is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art — recapitulates a late 19th-century German design. The long, slender finials of his Model 5580 dining chairs are based on those of Louis XVI chairs; his Listen-to-Me Chaise (1948) has a gentle Rococo curve; the “Precedent” line that Wormley designed for Drexel Furniture in 1947 is a simplified, pared-down take on muscular Georgian furniture. But he could invent new forms, as his Magazine table of 1953, with its bent wood pockets, and his tiered Magazine Tree (1947), both show. And Wormley kept his eye on design currents, creating a series of tables with tops that incorporate tiles and roundels by the great modern ceramicists Otto and Gertrud Natzler.
As the vintage items on 1stDibs demonstrate, Edward Wormley conceived of a subdued sort of modernism, designing furniture that fits into any decorating scheme and does not shout for attention.
Dunbar Furniture
Revered for its handcrafted and highly collectible mid-century modern sofas, coffee tables and other furnishings, Dunbar Furniture was founded in 1910 in Berne, Indiana, but it didn’t gain widespread recognition until the ’30s, following the introduction of its president to a designer who would leave an indelible mark on the company’s legacy: Edward Wormley.
After a stint at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Oswego, Illinois-born Wormley worked as an interior designer for Marshall Field’s before joining Dunbar in 1931. Initially focused on developing the company’s cheapest furniture line, which could be bought with soap coupons, he was soon leading Dunbar Furniture into a new era of residential furniture for modern American homes. He would serve as the company’s design director for over three decades, designing about 150 pieces each year.
During that time, he oversaw the production of designs in a wide range of materials, with influences ranging from Scandinavian modernism to Art Deco. There were modern upholstery pieces, like swiveling lounge chairs and low-slung sofas, and experiments with textural wood on bar carts and cabinets as well as minimal, sculptural tables and functional office furniture. A passionate collector of Tiffany Studios lamps, Wormley used their glass tiles in Dunbar tables in 1956. He also worked on the reproduction of pieces by designers such as Jean-Michel Frank and Richard Riemerschmid.
One standout Dunbar Furniture collection was Janus, introduced in the 1960s, with Austrian-born ceramicists Otto and Gertrud Natzler. These pieces see the Natzlers’ uniquely artful ceramic tiles set into several styles of wooden tables. They remain some of the most sought-after mid-century modern Dunbar pieces on the vintage market today. During the peak of his design career and, indeed, the height of Dunbar Furniture’s history, Wormley amassed a whopping 30 Good Design awards between 1950 and 1955 through the “Good Design” exhibition, hosted by the Chicago Merchandise Mart and the Museum of Modern Art. Dunbar today produces a limited selection of archival Wormley designs, but many sales of original Dunbar pieces are through the resale market.
Find a collection of authentic vintage Dunbar Furniture today on 1stDibs.
- Walnut Lectern by Edward WormleyBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYA unique and elegant lectern in walnut with a roll top cover and a single drawer.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- A Walnut Sideboard by Edward WormleyBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYA walnut server with central compartment having a removable glass-bottom serving tray & one adjustable shelf, flanked by two banks of four drawers over one long drawer all with brass...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
MaterialsBrass
- Walnut Low Table by Edward WormleyBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYA rectangular dark walnut low table having a black laminate top and distinctive triangular legs.Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Walnut Dining Chair by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYA sculptural and finely detailed armchair in walnut having a floating seat and back cushions, retaining the original black leather upholstery.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsTeak
$5,400 / item - Walnut Side Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYA Mid-Century Modern round-topped side table in figured oiled walnut having sculpted and tapered legs and an organic shaped lower stretcher. Designed by Edward Wormley, manufactured ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern End Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Table and Stool by Edward WormleyBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYAn ebonized and polished dark mahogany telephone cabinet or vanity table having a storage drawer and an innovative fold-out bench.Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Vanities
MaterialsMahogany
- Italian Walnut Wood and Chrome PlanterLocated in Brussels, BEItalian walnut wood and chrome planter.Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Planters and Jardinieres
MaterialsWood
- Maison Lancel Inspired Planter in Walnut and Chromed Steel, 1970sBy Maison LancelLocated in Barcelona, ESCube Shaped Planter, France, 1970s Stylish geometric cube burl wood planter with corners and details in chromed steel. In the style of Maison Lancel home collection. Manufactured with walnut burl wood panels joined with chromed steel details. In has an interior planter...Category
20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Planters and Jardinieres
MaterialsSteel, Chrome
- Modernist Walnut and Aluminum Architectural Planters by Habitat InternationalBy Habitat InternationalLocated in Buffalo, NYModernist Walnut and Aluminum Architectural Planters by Habitat International,, Stunning sleek, simple ,classic design,Fit seamlessly into any modern, contemporary, environment.Price...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Planters and Jardinieres
MaterialsAluminum
- Ceramic Hex Planter in Chrome Green by BZIPPYBy Bari ZipersteinLocated in Sun Valley, CACeramic Hex Planter in Chrome Green. Made to order. BZIPPY ceramic goods are one-of-a-kind stoneware / earthenware editions including furniture, planter...Category
2010s American Modern Planters, Cachepots and Jardinières
MaterialsCeramic
$1,795 / item - Modernist Walnut Ikebana PlanterLocated in San Diego, CAModernist solid walnut Ikebana planter with metal frog, circa 1990s. The piece measures: 5.5" D x 1.5" H and is signed on the underside. #1270.Category
Late 20th Century American Planters, Cachepots and Jardinières
MaterialsWalnut
$240 Sale Price20% Off - 2000s Chrome Monumental Large PlanterLocated in Pasadena, CA30 inch High Chrome Large monumental Planter in a modern chalice shape. Fully Chrome. Wonderful Look. Very elegant. Great used condition. Item does...Category
21st Century and Contemporary European Modern Planters and Jardinieres
MaterialsChrome