Modern Scientific Instruments
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
Late 20th Century United States Minor Outlying Islands Modern Scientific Instruments
Silver
Early 20th Century American Modern Scientific Instruments
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Late 19th Century Antique Modern Scientific Instruments
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1940s British Vintage Modern Scientific Instruments
Bamboo
Late 20th Century Modern Scientific Instruments
Gold, Sterling Silver
Late 20th Century Modern Scientific Instruments
Sterling Silver
19th Century Antique Modern Scientific Instruments
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20th Century English Modern Scientific Instruments
Silver, Sterling Silver
20th Century American Modern Scientific Instruments
Leather
1970s English Vintage Modern Scientific Instruments
Aluminum
1960s British Vintage Modern Scientific Instruments
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1880s French Antique Modern Scientific Instruments
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Early 1900s English Antique Modern Scientific Instruments
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