Mahogany Double Magazine Table by Ed Wormley for Dunbar
View Similar Items
Mahogany Double Magazine Table by Ed Wormley for Dunbar
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 24.25 in (61.6 cm)Width: 28 in (71.12 cm)Depth: 15.25 in (38.74 cm)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Hoboken, NJ
- Reference Number:Seller: 33251stDibs: LU78062770942
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 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.
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Walnut Magazine Tree TableBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Utrecht, NLMagazine tree, model 4765 by American designer Edward Wormley executed in birch and sap grain walnut, designed in 1947 for Dunbar Furniture USA. A very special, functional and aesth...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Magazine Racks and Stands
MaterialsBirch, Walnut
- Edward Wormley Style Magazine Tree for Dunbar, 1950sBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Puglia, Puglia'Magazine tree', model 4765 attributed to the American designer Edward Wormley, made of maple and poplar. Designed in 1947 for Dunbar Furniture USA. A very special and rare small pi...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Magazine Racks and Stands
MaterialsMaple, Poplar
$3,062 Sale Price20% Off - Magazine Table by Edward WormleyBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Sagaponack, NYA triangular ash table with an inset cream leather top over two web strap magazine holders.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern End Tables
MaterialsAsh, Leather
- Edward Wormley Midcentury Magazine Rack for Dunbar in Brass and Wood Brown, 1950By Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Milano, ITA timeless Classic. The Dunbar production relies on designer Edward Wormley to design this elegant magazine rack, which at the same time serves as a cabinet or coffee table. The pec...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Magazine Racks and Stands
MaterialsBrass
- Magazine Wedge Table by John Keal for Brown SaltmanBy John Keal, Brown SaltmanLocated in Hanover, MAJohn Keal for Brown Saltman mahogany side table with trapezoid wedge-shaped top flanking a magazine rack, on tapering dowel leg frame with brass-capped feet. Brown-Saltman decal on u...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Magazine Racks and Stands
MaterialsBrass
- Magazine Tree by Edward WormleyBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Sagaponack, NYAn olive green stained walnut magazine tree with cantilevered shelves.Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Magazine Racks and Stands
MaterialsWalnut