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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
1990s Danish Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1990s English Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1930s English Vintage Modern Barware
Silver Plate
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1980s British Vintage Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Late 20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Late 20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1980s American Vintage Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1980s English Vintage Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1970s English Vintage Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century Italian Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1880s English Antique Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1820s English Antique Modern Barware
Silver, Sterling Silver
Early 20th Century English Modern Barware
Silver, Sterling Silver
1950s American Vintage Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
1850s English Antique Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1920s American Vintage Modern Barware
Silver, Sterling Silver
Early 20th Century American Modern Barware
Silver, Chrome
1930s American Vintage Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Late 20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1930s American Vintage Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1920s British Vintage Modern Barware
Silver Plate
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1930s American Vintage Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Early 20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Early 2000s Italian Modern Barware
Porcelain
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
1960s Finnish Vintage Modern Barware
Glass
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Early 20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver
Mid-20th Century American Modern Barware
Sterling Silver