Edward J. Wormley Enameled Metal and Brass Three-Light Chandelier for Lightolier
View Similar Items
Edward J. Wormley Enameled Metal and Brass Three-Light Chandelier for Lightolier
About the Item
- Creator:Lightolier (Manufacturer),Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 15 in (38.1 cm)Diameter: 25 in (63.5 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Shows minor wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU97115180573
Edward Wormley
As the longtime director of design for the Dunbar furniture company, Edward Wormley was, along with such peers as George Nelson at Herman Miller Inc., and Florence Knoll of Knoll Inc., one of the leading forces in bringing modern design into American homes in the mid-20th century. Not an axiomatic modernist, Wormley deeply appreciated traditional design, and consequently his vintage seating, storage cabinets, bar carts and other work has an understated warmth and a timeless quality that sets it apart from other furnishings of the era.
Wormley was born in rural Illinois and as a teenager took correspondence courses from the New York School of Interior Design. He later attended the Art Institute of Chicago but ran out of money for tuition before he could graduate. Marshall Field hired Wormley in 1930 to design a line of reproduction 18th-century English furniture; the following year he was hired by the Indiana-based Dunbar, where he quickly distinguished himself. It was a good match.
Dunbar was an unusual firm: it did not use automated production systems; its pieces were mostly hand-constructed. For his part, Wormley did not use metal as a major component of furniture; he liked craft elements such as caned seatbacks, tambour drawers, or the woven-wood cabinet fronts seen on his Model 5666 sideboard of 1956. He designed two lines for Dunbar each year — one traditional, one modern — until 1944, by which time the contemporary pieces had become the clear best sellers.
Many of Wormley’s signature pieces — chairs, sofas, tables and more — are modern interpretations of traditional forms. His 1946 Riemerschmid Chair — an example is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art — recapitulates a late 19th-century German design. The long, slender finials of his Model 5580 dining chairs are based on those of Louis XVI chairs; his Listen-to-Me Chaise (1948) has a gentle Rococo curve; the “Precedent” line that Wormley designed for Drexel Furniture in 1947 is a simplified, pared-down take on muscular Georgian furniture. But he could invent new forms, as his Magazine table of 1953, with its bent wood pockets, and his tiered Magazine Tree (1947), both show. And Wormley kept his eye on design currents, creating a series of tables with tops that incorporate tiles and roundels by the great modern ceramicists Otto and Gertrud Natzler.
As the vintage items on 1stDibs demonstrate, Edward Wormley conceived of a subdued sort of modernism, designing furniture that fits into any decorating scheme and does not shout for attention.
Lightolier
Founded in 1904 in New York and family-operated through most of its history, Lightolier was one of the pioneering American electric lighting companies, best known for its embrace of stylistic and technical innovations.
Collectors focus on vintage Lightolier lighting fixtures produced from the 1950s and into the 1970s, when an in-house design team led by Gerald Thurston — and a stellar cast of international design contributors — created an array of practical yet aesthetically lively table lamps, floor lamps, sconces and chandeliers.
Amidst the post-World War II building boom, Lightolier — the name combines “light” and “chandelier” — aggressively boosted its residential lighting division. Thurston, who was strongly influenced by the sleek designs of Gino Sarfatti and his Italian lighting firm Arteluce, towards simpler lamp designs that offered flexibility of function. His best-known designs include the Cricket task light — a lamp with an adjustable enameled metal hood that toggles on a slender bent-metal base — and the three-legged Tripod floor lamp. At the same time, Thurston had a wonderful eye for talent and sought work from some of the lesser-known greats of the era, such as Paavo Tynell, the Finnish lighting designer, who designed several brass chandeliers for Lightolier with his trademark elegant flamboyance.
And more, Thurston recognized abilities in designers not known for their work in lighting.
Edward Wormley, head of furniture design for Dunbar, produced several noteworthy chandeliers employing canisters and reflective hoods. Alvin Lustig was famed as a graphic designer. His ca. 1953 Ring ceiling fixture for Lightolier had a minimalist techno look some 30 years ahead of its time. But this was par. Designed by Michael Lax in 1964, the Lytegem high-intensity lamp — included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art — features a ball-shaped shade attached with a chromed armature to a cubic base, a form that would be widely copied in the following decade. Chandeliers designed in the early 1970s by Gaetano Sciolari, with details such as acrylic diffusers and vertical, two-bulb arms, would define the look of lighting in their day.
A look through these pages reveals just how astonishingly wide a range of lighting pieces Lightolier produced. The company never flicked off its stylistic switch.
Find a collection of vintage Lightolier lamps and other lighting fixtures on 1stDibs.
- Edward J. Wormley Leather Top & Brass Coffee Table for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Los Angeles, CAEdward J. Wormley Leather Top & Brass Coffee Table for Dunbar Introducing the Edward J. Wormley Leather Top & Brass Coffee Table for Dunbar, a vintage...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Edward J. Wormley Model 5272A Dresser with Brass Taper Legs for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Los Angeles, CABeautiful dresser designed by Edward J. Wormley for Dunbar in the United States circa 1950’s. Featuring twelve spacious drawers that gradually increase in depth. This walnut-stained mahogany wood dresser features laminated bentwood pulls along the sides of the drawers that match the raised lip...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
MaterialsBrass
- Expertly Restored - Edward J. Wormley Tufted Lounge Chair for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Los Angeles, CAMid-Century Modern lounge chair designed by American furniture designer, Edward J. Wormley, for Dunbar in the United States, circa 1950s. T...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsBrass
- Expertly Restored - Edward J. Wormley Night Stands with Bookshelves for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Los Angeles, CATransforming a piece of Mid-Century Modern furniture is like bringing history back to life, and we take this journey with passion and precision. With over 17 years of artisanal exper...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Night Stands
MaterialsWalnut
- Expertly Restored - Edward J. Wormley "Janus" Boucle Slipper Chairs for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Los Angeles, CATransforming a piece of Mid-Century Modern furniture is like bringing history back to life, and we take this journey with passion and precision. With over 17 years of artisanal exper...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsBouclé, Walnut
- Expertly Restored - Edward J. Wormley Cognac Leather Slipper Chairs for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Los Angeles, CATransforming a piece of Mid-Century Modern furniture is like bringing history back to life, and we take this journey with passion and precision. With over 17 years of artisanal exper...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsLeather, Wood, Walnut
- Edward Wormley for Lightolier Pendant Lamp chandelier Brass and Lacquer 1950sBy Edward WormleyLocated in Virginia Beach, VAA simplistic form from Edward Wormley for lightolier. The white cup allows for light to diffuse through perforations as well as directs light up which bounces and diffuses off the l...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- Saucer Pendant Light by Edward Wormley for LightolierLocated in BROOKLYN, NYStunning Midcentury pendant light with enameled saucer and brass perforated cones. Designed by Edward Wormley for Lightolier. Features original height adjustment "egg" and brass ceil...Category
Mid-20th Century Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass, Enamel
- Vintage Lightolier 5-Light Perforated Brass ChandelierBy LightolierLocated in East Hampton, NYThe 5 brass cup style diffusers are perforated with stars design. This is a flush mount light fixture with crystal orbs adornments. Made by Lightolier, possibly by Paavo Tynell. T...Category
Vintage 1960s Finnish Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
- Lightolier, Chandelier, Brass, Metal, Glass, USA, 1950sBy LightolierLocated in High Point, NCA brass and beige-lacquered metal and glass chandelier designed and produced by Lightolier, USA, 1950s. Dimensions of canopy (inches): N/A Socket takes standard E-26 & E-14 bulbs. 1...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Lightolier Concentric Louvered Brass Pendant Light / ChandelierBy LightolierLocated in Fulton, CAA polished brass pendant chandelier by Lightolier. Designed with 5 concentric, brushed brass louvers over a polished brass metal domed shade. Concentric bands allow filtered upward l...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsMetal
- Midcentury Brass Chandelier LightolierBy LightolierLocated in New York, NYStunning Mid-Century Modern Brass Chandelier. Lightolier Five Arm Brass Chandelier with frosted white glass sphere shaped shades. Five Arm Brass Mid-Century Modern Sphere Glass Chandelier. Five upswept square brass tube arms with small brass ball details to each arm having frosted white glass sphere's set in raised brass dishes. From the center a brass pole extends downward to a brass dish finial capped with brass sphere to the bottom. Simple lines creating elegant movement presenting a modern aesthetic. This chandelier offers flexibility can be both a formal or modern casual lighting feature. Working great over a dinning table or room fixture. Supper Mid Century Brass Chandelier.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
MaterialsBrass
$1,400 Sale Price41% Off