Modern Barware
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
21st Century and Contemporary German Modern Barware
Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Barware
Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Barware
Resin, Plastic
20th Century Italian Modern Barware
Crystal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Barware
Resin, Plastic
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
1960s American Vintage Modern Barware
Enamel
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Barware
Cut Steel
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Barware
Resin, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Barware
Resin, Plastic
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Barware
Blown Glass
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Barware
Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary Czech Modern Barware
Glass
20th Century German Modern Barware
Art Glass
1970s Italian Vintage Modern Barware
Goatskin
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass, Iron
2010s Chinese Modern Barware
Metal, Aluminum
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Barware
Crystal
1950s Vintage Modern Barware
Glass
Early 20th Century Czech Modern Barware
Glass
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Barware
Goatskin
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Barware
Crystal
21st Century and Contemporary French Modern Barware
Glass
Late 20th Century Modern Barware
Art Glass
1980s Italian Vintage Modern Barware
Blown Glass
20th Century American Modern Barware
Crystal
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Barware
Art Glass, Blown Glass, Murano Glass
Mid-20th Century Unknown Modern Barware
Ceramic
Mid-20th Century Italian Modern Barware
Art Glass, Blown Glass
1970s American Vintage Modern Barware
Glass
1960s Italian Vintage Modern Barware
Goatskin