Edward Wormley "New York" Sofa Version 5316 for DUX, Sweden 1950s
View Similar Items
Edward Wormley "New York" Sofa Version 5316 for DUX, Sweden 1950s
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer),Dux of Sweden (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 30.52 in (77.5 cm)Width: 90.16 in (229 cm)Depth: 31.5 in (80 cm)Seat Height: 18.51 in (47 cm)
- Style:Scandinavian Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Reupholstered. Wear consistent with age and use. The sofa has been reupholstered recently in a premium linen fabric. Each of our items can be re-upholstered by our in-house atelier in a fabric of choice. Please reach out for more information.
- Seller Location:Utrecht, NL
- Reference Number:Seller: 202319661stDibs: LU2947336653842
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.
Dux of Sweden
Today, Swedish manufacturer DUX’s most popular furniture lines — as well as the furnishings created by its first president, Folke Ohlsson — are synonymous with the work that vintage mid-century modern design obsessives love. Also important, the brand is known for some of the most commonplace means of furniture shipping and production in the modern era.
In Sweden, Studio Ljungs Industrier AB is the large family-owned parent company of Duxiana (in America, DUX). Initially a purveyor of bedding that is today celebrated for its ergonomically guided designs, Ljungs Industrier was founded by entrepreneur (and chocolate maker) Efraim Ljung in 1926. In 1950, Folke Ohlsson, then leading Ljungs Industrier’s design team, decamped to the States to explore how he could expand DUX’s business, which at that point included a wide range of furniture. Ohlsson established a DUX office not long after he arrived in California, first in San Francisco and later in Burlingame.
On the West Coast, the booming postwar American market was eager to embrace DUX’s affordable and practical bedroom furnishings, tables, armchairs and other seating. Characterized by sleek walnut and teak frames and low-slung silhouettes, the brand’s designs were emblematic of a generation of Scandinavian modernism that had gained popularity owing to visionaries such as product designer and architect Greta Magnusson-Grossman, who arrived in California from Sweden a decade prior to Ohlsson, and Finn Juhl, who created a Danish modern line for Michigan’s Baker Furniture Company in 1951.
DUX frequently collaborated with top-tier furniture design talent — among them Bruno Mathsson, Edward Wormley and Alf Svensson, a chief designer in the Malmö, Sweden, office of Ljungs Industrier — expanding the brand’s portfolio and establishing credibility as a design source. Ohlsson’s own designs, such as his comfortable leather lounges and wool-upholstered reclining rocking chairs, continue to be among the brand’s most desirable — and most imitated — however.
In 1949, DUX put into practice an idea that Ohlsson patented for the so-called “knock-down,” or “KD,” chair, a term referencing easy, flat-pack assembly. It saved DUX space in warehouses and money on transportation and was a concept that would provide inspiration to hundreds of subsequent companies — most notably fellow Swedish brand IKEA.
Today, vintage DUX sofas and dining chairs are valuable collector’s items. Find this coveted seating and other authentic DUX furniture on 1stDibs.
- Edward Wormley "New York" Sofa Version 5316 for DUX, Sweden 1950sBy Edward WormleyLocated in Utrecht, NLEdward Wormley took the best elements from classical, historical Scandinavian and other European furniture design and translated them into a Modern vernacular. The result was furnitu...Category
Vintage 1950s Swedish Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsLinen, Wood
- Swedish Cabinetmaker Sofa and Armchairs, Sweden, 1950sLocated in Utrecht, NLSvensk design, “Swedish design”, is unquestionably a conventional and popular branding device, with many companies explicitly promoting their products as examples of god design, “good design”. But svensk design does not simply represent “good” design made in Sweden, it also projects a powerful, concrete rendering of a sort of essentialized “Swedishness” embedded in objects, such as this sofa and armchairs. Rounded out lines, unexpected curvature and innovative shapes from every angle define the design of this set. The aesthetic recalls classic English upholstered furniture...Category
Vintage 1950s Swedish Scandinavian Modern Sofas
MaterialsFabric, Wood
- Swedish Mid-Century Cabinetmaker Sofa, Sweden 1950sLocated in Utrecht, NLSvensk design, “Swedish design”, is unquestionably a conventional and popular branding device, with many companies explicitly promoting their products as examples of god design, “good design”. But svensk design does not simply represent “good” design made in Sweden, it also projects a powerful, concrete rendering of a sort of essentialized “Swedishness” embedded in objects, such as this sofa. Rounded out lines, unexpected curvature and innovative shapes from every angle define the design of this model. The aesthetic recalls classic English upholstered furniture...Category
Vintage 1950s Swedish Scandinavian Modern Sofas
MaterialsFabric, Wood
- Carl Malmsten "Samspel" Sofa for Ab Record, Sweden 1950sBy Carl MalmstenLocated in Utrecht, NLThis model “Samspel” sofa was first introduced at the exhibition at Röhsska Museet (the Swedish Museum of Design and Crafts) in Gothenburg in 1956. The model’s name means ‘interactio...Category
Mid-20th Century Swedish Scandinavian Modern Sofas
MaterialsWool, Wood
- Carl Malmsten "Samspel" Sofa for AB Record Bollnäs, Sweden, 1950sBy Carl MalmstenLocated in Utrecht, NLThe “Samspel”, or “Interaction” sofa model was first introduced at the exhibition at Röhsska Museet (the Swedish Museum of Design and Crafts) in Gothenburg in 1956. The model’s name ...Category
Vintage 1950s Swedish Scandinavian Modern Sofas
MaterialsFabric, Wood
- Swedish Modern Sofa with Cherry Wood Legs, Sweden 1950sLocated in Utrecht, NLDesigned in the early phase of what we know today as mid-century modern, this charming sofa is a unique evidence of how traditional Swedish craftsmanship was brought into modernism. ...Category
Vintage 1950s Swedish Scandinavian Modern Sofas
MaterialsWood, Fabric
- vintage sofa Edward Wormley Dux sofa "New York"By Edward Wormley, Dux of SwedenLocated in GRONINGEN, NLvintage sofa Edward Wormley Dux sofa "New York" Rare sofa by American designer Edward J. Wormley, designed in 1952 for Dunbar Furniture USA. Produced at Ljungs Industrier / DUX C...Category
Vintage 1950s Swedish Sofas
MaterialsFabric, Wood
- Edward Wormley 'New York' SofaBy Edward Wormley, Dux of SwedenLocated in Waalwijk, NLEdward Wormley for Dunbar Furniture / DUX of Sweden, sofa model 5316, faux leather, metal, wood, United States, design 1952 This three-seat sofa was designed by Edward Wormley for D...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsMetal
$12,000 - Edward Wormley for Dunbar model 5316 SofaBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA rare model 5316 sofa designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar in 1953. Floating back with exposed mahogany frame. Fully restored and upholstered in Holly Hunt / Vladimir / Silver Fog ...Category
Vintage 1950s Sofas
MaterialsMahogany
- Edward Wormley 'New York' Sofa in Orange UpholsteryBy Edward Wormley, Dux of SwedenLocated in Waalwijk, NLEdward Wormley for Dunbar Furniture / DUX of Sweden, sofa model 5316, fabric, beech, metal, United States, design 1952 This three-seat sofa was designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsMetal
- Gondola Sofa by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, USA, 1950sBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILA Gondola sofa designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar’s Janus Collection in the 1950s. This sculptural sofa features angled arms and a floating back attached to the base with walnut s...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsBrass
- Midcentury Kontur Sofa Bench by Alf Svensson for Dux Sweden 1950sBy Alf Svensson, Dux of SwedenLocated in Halle, DEA really Ultra-Rare Kontur Sofa or Sofa - Bench by Alf Svensson for Dux of Sweden ,1950s. Very comfortable and ergonomic this Sofa is elegant and small enough to fit in many Room Si...Category
Vintage 1950s Swedish Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsUpholstery, Beech