Modern Desk Accessories
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.
Late 20th Century French Modern Desk Accessories
Crystal, Silver Plate
1960s French Vintage Modern Desk Accessories
Sterling Silver
Late 20th Century French Modern Desk Accessories
Resin
1990s Italian Modern Desk Accessories
Sterling Silver
1920s French Vintage Modern Desk Accessories
Multi-gemstone, Gold, Bronze, Enamel
1980s French Vintage Modern Desk Accessories
Silver Plate
20th Century French Modern Desk Accessories
Crystal
1930s Scottish Vintage Modern Desk Accessories
Porcelain
20th Century Swedish Modern Desk Accessories
Stainless Steel, Sterling Silver
Early 20th Century American Modern Desk Accessories
Sterling Silver
19th Century French Antique Modern Desk Accessories
Crystal, Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary English Modern Desk Accessories
Steel
19th Century British Antique Modern Desk Accessories
Crystal
20th Century Italian Modern Desk Accessories
Crystal
Early 20th Century European Modern Desk Accessories
Crystal, Brass
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Desk Accessories
Silver, Sterling Silver
Early 2000s French Modern Desk Accessories
Stainless Steel
20th Century English Modern Desk Accessories
Gold
1980s French Vintage Modern Desk Accessories
Gold
Late 20th Century French Modern Desk Accessories
Silver Plate
1990s French Modern Desk Accessories
Lapis Lazuli, Gold Plate
1970s French Vintage Modern Desk Accessories
Metal, Gold Plate
1960s American Vintage Modern Desk Accessories
Sterling Silver
1980s Spanish Vintage Modern Desk Accessories
Sterling Silver
1970s French Vintage Modern Desk Accessories
Crystal