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Edward Wormley for Dunbar Chaise Longue Sofa

About
Details
- CreatorDunbar Furniture (Cabinetmaker),Edward Wormley (Designer)
- DimensionsHeight: 27.5 in. (69.85 cm)Width: 77 in. (195.58 cm)Depth: 29.5 in. (74.93 cm)Seat Height: 16 in. (40.64 cm)
- StyleMid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques
- Place of Origin
- Period
- Date of ManufactureMid-20th Century
- ConditionBase is at refinisher for touch up and small restoration included in price. Upholstery is probably from the 80s/90's and is may be desirable to reupholster.
- Seller LocationChicago, IL
- Reference Number1stDibs: LU97867967823
Shipping & Returns
- ShippingShips From: Chicago, IL
- Return Policy
This item cannot be returned.
About the Designer
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 Dunbar SofaBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley Dunbar sofa can be paired as a sectional with matching chaise longue 5525 we have offered in another listing.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsUpholstery
$15,000 - Edward Wormley Side Table for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley side table for Dunbar. The scarcer form with two-tier tabletop.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
- Early Elegant Custom Edward Wormley Console for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Chicago, ILAn elegant Wormley console with 9 x 9 travertine marble tile insets to form one long marble rectangular form. Most likely a custom form. This console bares the early green Dunbar label.Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
MaterialsWood
- Early Edward Wormley Step End Tables / Nightstands for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Chicago, ILEarly Edward Wormley step end tables for Dunbar.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern End Tables
MaterialsWood
- Edward Wormley Faceted Lounge Chair with Ottoman for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley Faceted Lounge Chair with Ottoman for Dunbar. A nice compact design with the desirable ottoman that sit on hexagon formed legs. Manner of Milo Baughman This chair ne...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery
- Fine Edward Wormley Mirror for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Chicago, ILA fine Edward Wormley mirror for Dunbar. Thin wood profile.Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Wall Mirrors
MaterialsWood
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