George Nelson Walnut Spike Clock by Howard Miller

A rare Mid Century walnut dry bar with pull down front door with light up drink area and storage for glasses . When down the door has a white laminate backing making a bar surface fo...

A Mid Century queen sized walnut headboard with sculptural diamond designs to the front . Manufactured and designed in the manner of the G Plan furni...

A unique Space Age Table lamp with large Lucite balls with added bubbles to each one inside so when lite makes for a stunning statement . Having a chrome ball with chrome sticks hold...

A two door Nelson walnut hanging cabinet with woven cane fronts and brass hardware, having a beveled bottom edge to the doors for ease of opening and folding to the top. Inside the b...

Iconic and classic Howard Miller ball clock from the 1950's by George Nelson. Wonderful Atomic style with a central clock motif with 50's styl...

Interestingly, while nearly all of the designs that came out of George’s studio were attributed to him, many were actually designed by him and his team. Some were even designed solely by someone else working at the studio. Nelson famously recounted the story of how the Ball Clock came to life in an interview decades after it’s release: “It was one of the really funny evenings. Noguchi came by, Bucky Fuller came by, and here was Irving, and here was I, and Noguchi - who can’t keep his hands off anything - he saw we were working on clocks and started making doodles. Then Bucky sort of brushed Isamu aside. He said, ‘This is a good way to do a clock’ and made some utterly absurd thing. Everybody was taking a crack at this, pushing each other aside and making scribbles. At some point we left – we were suddenly all tired, and we’d had a little bit too much to drink – and the next morning I came back, and here was this roll of paper, and Irving and I looked at it, and somewhere in this roll, there was a ball clock. I don’t know to this day who cooked it up.” Nevertheless, whoever it was that came up with George Nelson’s designs, it’s almost certain that they would never have come to fruition if it wasn’t for George’s vision and forward-thinking approach. Can you tell me more about his clocks? George’s clocks were one of his most impressive bodies of work. In total, he and his team designed over 130 clocks in just three decades. While it is widely accepted that Irving Harper was the lead designer for the Howard Miller Clock Company at George Nelson Associates, the collection arose after two insightful observations from George: one, that people no longer used the numbers to tell the time; and two, that since most people now used their wristwatch to tell the time, interior clocks were now free to become more decorative in nature. The clocks were designed and released in batches of 8 and were initially only given numbers for names. The Sunflower Clock was simply ‘Clock 2261’, the Flock of Butterflies Clock was 'Clock 2226’, and so on. The Ball was the first clock designed by George and his team and it was followed shortly after by the Star, Sunburst, Spindle, Asterisk, Turbine, Flock of Butterflies, Eye and others. The clocks were purposefully abstract and were designed to complement the modernist furniture emerging at the time. As well as wall clocks, George’s studio also produced a series of desk clocks during that time, most notably the bubble-shaped Night Desk...

Classic Mid Century Modern sunburst wall clock designed by George Nelson for Howard Miller Clock Company, circa 1950's. This iconic piece is all original made with black lacquered wo...

An iconic Original Ball Wall Clock designed in 1947 by George Nelson Associates and produced by the Howard Miller Clock Company in Zeeland, Michigan. This early example features a ra...