Mid-Century Modern Quilts and Blankets
MID-CENTURY MODERN STYLE
Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern furniture. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living.
ORIGINS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Emerged during the mid-20th century
- Informed by European modernism, Bauhaus, International style, Scandinavian modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture
- A heyday of innovation in postwar America
- Experimentation with new ideas, new materials and new forms flourished in Scandinavia, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in Europe
CHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Simplicity, organic forms, clean lines
- A blend of neutral and bold Pop art colors
- Use of natural and man-made materials — alluring woods such as teak, rosewood and oak; steel, fiberglass and molded plywood
- Light-filled spaces with colorful upholstery
- Glass walls and an emphasis on the outdoors
- Promotion of functionality
MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
- Charles and Ray Eames
- Eero Saarinen
- Milo Baughman
- Florence Knoll
- Harry Bertoia
- Isamu Noguchi
- George Nelson
- Danish modernists Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen, whose emphasis on natural materials and craftsmanship influenced American designers and vice versa
ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS
- Eames lounge chair
- Nelson daybed
- Florence Knoll sofa
- Egg chair
- Womb chair
- Noguchi coffee table
- Barcelona chair
VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
The mid-century modern era saw leagues of postwar American architects and designers animated by new ideas and new technology. The lean, functionalist International-style architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the 1930s by Philip Johnson and others. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale in open-plan houses with long walls of glass.
Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair, respectively.
Architect, writer and designer George Nelson created with his team shades for the Bubble lamp using a new translucent polymer skin and, as design director at Herman Miller, recruited the Eameses, Alexander Girard and others for projects at the legendary Michigan furniture manufacturer.
Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. Materials were repurposed too: The Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs using surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests.
The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll, a chief influencer in the rise of modern design in the United States, thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field. The seating that Knoll created for office spaces — as well as pieces designed by Florence initially for commercial clients — soon became desirable for the home.
As the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century furniture designers caught the spirit.
Classically oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise; the British expatriate T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb, who designed holistic groups of sleek, blond wood furniture, and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in minimalist teak dining tables and lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.
As the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture for the living room, dining room, bedroom and elsewhere on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history.
Style: Mid-Century Modern
Color: Brown
1960s Fun Vintage Blue Plaid Leisure Blanket Troy N. H.
Located in Chula Vista, CA
1960s Fun Vintage Blue Plaid Leisure Blanket Troy New Hampshire
52 x 64.25
Label present
Preowned original vintage condition
See all images.
Category
1960s American Vintage Mid-Century Modern Quilts and Blankets
Materials
Textile
1960s Traditional Welsh Wool Tapestry Blanket Yellow & Black Bed Throw
Located in Llanbrynmair, GB
A beautiful original 1960s welsh wool tapestry blanket in immaculate condition, in a vibrant yellow colour with black and grey tones.
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Mid-20th Century Welsh Mid-Century Modern Quilts and Blankets
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Mid-Century Modern Italian Vintage Silk Scarf Throw Pillow, 1970s
Located in Prato, IT
Mid-Century Modern Italian vintage silk scarf throw pillow, 1970s.
Category
1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Quilts and Blankets
Materials
Cotton, Silk
Superb Large Picart Le Doux Aubusson Woven Wool Tapestry, 1961
Located in New York, NY
Jean Picart Le Doux (1902-1982)
Exceptional large woven wool Aubusson tapestry by Picart Le Doux
with central armillary sphere motif, flanked by symbols of the sciences, perfect
for ...
Category
1960s French Vintage Mid-Century Modern Quilts and Blankets
Materials
Wool
Pair of Karel Appel Curtains, 1963, Documented at Stedelijk Musem
By Karel Appel
Located in bergen op zoom, NL
Super rare and impressive pair of large cotton ''gordijnstof' curtains, designed in 1963 by world renowned Dutch painter and sculptor Karel Appel (1921-2006) for the textile company Hermann Hartman & Co of Amsterdam.
This extremely rare, original repeat print textile is documented in the Stedelijk museum's textile collection under object nubmer KNA 1998, please see image 2.
Each curtain measures 56.7" X 83.85" (144cm X 213cm).
'Gordijnstof' translates as "curtain fabric" confirming that this textile was originally designed by Appel specifically for use as curtains however being of such an impressive dimension these examples could equally be used as wall hangings ,as photographed, or mounted on both sides of a screen or mounted and framed as an art work in its own right , a practice which is becoming increasingly commonplace as high end textile designs by important artists are becoming increasingly valued , appreciated and sought after in the marketplace.
Appel's paintings and sculptures can be found in the collections of some of the world's most prominent museums including the Museum of Modern art in New York and Tate Modern ,London.
Each curtain is of a very impressive scale with each measuring
56.7 " (144 cm) X 83.85" (213cm).
The curtains are signed on the banding KUNSTENAAR DESSIN ONTWERP Karel Appel, HARTMAN PRINT, AMSTERDAM. Another of Appel's designs for Hermann Hartman,Amsterdam can be found in the collection of the national textile museum in Holland. Please see image 9.
Even a small sample of this 1963 textile in good condition would be hard to find today but to find two large scale Appel curtains intact and in beautiful unfaded condition with no staining or fraying must be next to unique today. This is a very rare find and certainly a unique opportunity.
Image 10 shows Karel Appel in his atelier in New York in 1966.
Provenance:
These curtains come from the private collection of a retired Professor from Oxford,UK.
Biography:
Karel Appel was an Expressionist Dutch painter. He was a member of the famous Cobra, the European group of the late 1940s to early 1950s, which promoted spontaneous expressionism and abstract features in painting. Appel's paintings incorporate applications of vibrant, violent colors often possessing a primal, childlike quality or a schizophrenic innocence. Later in life, Appel turned to creating figurative sculptures. Examples of his work can be seen in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and other collections. Expressionist painter Karel Appel made a name for himself in the world of painting by creating a majestic collection of highly distinguishable work for which he became internationally renowned. From the start, art curators could not ignore Appel's work, which has been exhibited at major museums around the world, including New York's Museum of Modern Art, the Manhattan-based Guggenheim Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Tate Gallery in London. Though Appel is widely recognized as one of the best-known Dutch Expressionist painters of all time, he was also a passionate printmaker, sculptor, and ceramicist.
Karel Appel’s childhood and early life
Christiaan Karel Appel was born on April 25, 1921, in his parents’ house at 7 Dapperstraat, Amsterdam. His father, Jan Appel, owned a barbershop. His mother, born Johanna Chevalier, was a descendant of French Huguenots. Karel Appel had three brothers. He studied art from 1940 to 1943 at the Rejksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, the Royal Academy of Fine Arts during the German occupation and befriended young painter Corneille and, some years later, Constant. His parents opposed his choice to become an artist, leading him to leave home. This was also necessary to hide himself from the German police so that he would not be picked up and sent to Germany to work in the weapon industry. Appel produced his first real painting on canvas, which was a still life of a fruit basket at the age of fourteen. On his fifteenth birthday, his wealthy uncle Karel Chevalier gave him a paint set and an easel and some lessons on painting.
Career.
In 1946, his first solo show was held in Groningen, Netherlands. He also participated in the Jonge Schilders exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum of Amsterdam nd created a buzz in the art world, as it generated a huge scandal and many objections in the press and public. About this time, Appel was influenced first by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, then by the French brute-art artist Jean Dubuffet. In 1947, he started sculpting with various used materials and painted them in bright colors such as white, red, yellow, blue and black. Karel Appel became the member of Nederlandse Experimentele Group in Holland along with the young Dutch painters Anton Rooskens...
Category
1960s Dutch Vintage Mid-Century Modern Quilts and Blankets
Materials
Cotton
Hand Loomed Textile
Located in Sagaponack, NY
An exquisite hand-loomed textile of good scale incorporating an expressive and colorful array of tufted wool and variegated fabric elements.
Category
1960s American Vintage Mid-Century Modern Quilts and Blankets
Materials
Textile
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Mid-century Modern quilts and blankets for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a broad range of unique Mid-Century Modern quilts and blankets for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage quilts and blankets created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include more furniture and collectibles, wall decorations, rugs and carpets and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with fabric, wool and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Mid-Century Modern quilts and blankets made in a specific country, there are Europe, North America, and Asia pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original quilts and blankets, popular names associated with this style include Jackie Villevoye, Pamela Print, Pierre Cardin, and Area ID. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for quilts and blankets differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $85 and tops out at $15,000 while the average work can sell for $650.
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