Modern Models and Miniatures
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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 Canadian Modern Models and Miniatures
Leather
21st Century and Contemporary Canadian Modern Models and Miniatures
Leather
21st Century and Contemporary Canadian Modern Models and Miniatures
Leather
21st Century and Contemporary Canadian Modern Models and Miniatures
Leather
21st Century and Contemporary Canadian Modern Models and Miniatures
Leather
Mid-20th Century French Modern Models and Miniatures
Mirror, Talosel
Late 20th Century Unknown Modern Models and Miniatures
Metal, Gold
1950s American Vintage Modern Models and Miniatures
Metal
1940s German Vintage Modern Models and Miniatures
Metal
2010s American Modern Models and Miniatures
Other
1930s American Vintage Modern Models and Miniatures
Tin
Early 2000s American Modern Models and Miniatures
Crystal, Brass
1980s Vintage Modern Models and Miniatures
Gold
Mid-20th Century American Modern Models and Miniatures
Other
20th Century Austrian Modern Models and Miniatures
Stone, Silver, Brass
Late 19th Century English Antique Modern Models and Miniatures
Iron
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Models and Miniatures
Other