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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
1950s French Vintage Modern Barware
Chrome
1950s French Vintage Modern Barware
Metal, Aluminum, Copper
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Cane, Glass
1950s French Vintage Modern Barware
Metal
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
1950s British Vintage Modern Barware
Silver Plate, Brass
1950s Italian Vintage Modern Barware
Glass
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Leather
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
1950s French Vintage Modern Barware
Martelé
20th Century Spanish Modern Barware
Wrought Iron, Copper, Iron
1960s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
20th Century Austrian Modern Barware
Brass
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Stainless Steel
1920s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
1930s French Vintage Modern Barware
Silver Plate
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Stainless Steel
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Barware
Leather, Porcelain
20th Century French Modern Barware
Silver Plate
Early 20th Century European Modern Barware
Metal, Silver, Silver Plate
1960s Unknown Vintage Modern Barware
Aluminum, Brass
2010s Austrian Modern Barware
Brass
1950s French Vintage Modern Barware
Metal, Chrome
1950s American Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
1950s Italian Vintage Modern Barware
Aluminum
1950s Belgian Vintage Modern Barware
Crystal
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Cane, Glass
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Horn, Leather
1950s American Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
1950s Danish Vintage Modern Barware
Stainless Steel
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass
1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Barware
Brass