Floor Lamp by Edward Wormley for Dunbar
View Similar Items
Floor Lamp by Edward Wormley for Dunbar
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 62 in (157.48 cm)Diameter: 25 in (63.5 cm)
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Dallas, TX
- Reference Number:Seller: 3461stDibs: LU85181890262
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.
- Stool by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXAn ash stool with sheepskin cover seat. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Stools
- Chest by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA walnut dresser with rosewood handle and brass feet. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsWalnut
- Cabinet by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA walnut cabinet with leather wrapped handles and spruce sliding doors. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Cabinets
MaterialsWalnut
- Chest by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA walnut dresser with sculpted drawer fronts and rosewood handles and brass feet. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Dressers
MaterialsWalnut
- Sofa by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA small sofa / settee designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Iconic form with tapered brass legs. Fully restored and upholstered in Designtex / Lambert / Smoke.Category
Vintage 1950s Sofas
MaterialsBouclé
- Edward Wormley "a Chair" for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA rare chair in mahogany with solid brass legs. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Chairs
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Floor LampBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in St.Petersburg, FLFloor lamp designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Features a "snack" table base consisting of brass legs, walnut stem, carpathian elm burl wood table top trimmed in walnut. Light com...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsBrass
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Floor Lamp with Incorporated Table 1954 (Signed)By Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in New York, NYFloor lamp model 5410 with incorporated table in walnut with book-matched Carpathian elm and solid brass base by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, 1954 (signed “Dunbar Berne Indiana” on lab...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsBrass
- Rare Edward Wormley Lamp Table by DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Highland, INThis table lamp by Edward Wormley is an exceedingly rare variation on the model 5410 by Dunbar. The model 5410 was produced with a couple base variations, but this example has severa...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsBrass
- Dunbar Snack Table Floor Lamp, Model 4856, Designed by Edward WormleyBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Hanover, MARare Dunbar floor lamp/snack table combo, Model 4856, designed by Edward Wormley circa 1948. Original Dunbar tag on underside. Slender tapered walnut leg and lamp stem. Round top, 25...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Illuminated Globe Lamp attributed to Edward Wormley DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILGlobe Lamp attributed to Edward Wormley for Dunbar. These are wired and illuminate.Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Globes
MaterialsWood
- Megaron Floor Lamp by Gianfranco Frattini for Artemide, 1970sBy Gianfranco FrattiniLocated in Lasne, BEFloor lamp in chromed metal. The intensity of the light is adjustable. Stamped Artemide. Wear due to time and age of the lamp.Category
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsMetal