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Rare Dunbar Gray Leather Sofa Chaise, Expertly Reupholstered

About
Details
- CreatorEdward Wormley (Designer),Dunbar Furniture (Manufacturer)
- DimensionsHeight: 31.5 in. (80.01 cm)Width: 80 in. (203.2 cm)Depth: 29 in. (73.66 cm)Seat Height: 19 in. (48.26 cm)
- StyleMid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques
- Place of Origin
- Period
- Date of Manufacture1950s
- ConditionReupholstered. The new leather is unused and the legs show attractive wear as seen in the photos.
- Seller LocationKansas City, MO
- Reference Number1stDibs: LU1057012599592
Shipping & Returns
- ShippingShips From: Kansas City, MO
- Return Policy
A return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
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.
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- Sofa by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, Beautiful Original Condition, Tan Silk FabricBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Kansas City, MOTufted seat and back sofa designed by Edward Wormley. Dark stained African mahogany cross stretcher base with floating ends. The silk blend original fabric is in amazingly good condi...Category
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- Rocking Chaise by Richard Meier for Knoll, 1982. Black Leather. Rare. Signed.By Richard Meier, KnollLocated in Kansas City, MORichard Meier Rocking Chaise manufactured by Knoll, 1982. Designed to lay either direction and wide enough for two people. The original black leather was in hardly used condition, ...Category
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- Woven Front Cabinet by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, Expertly RestoredBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Kansas City, MOMahogany storage cabinet with woven sliding doors and drawers designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. The two sliding doors have fronts woven with thin pieces of mahogany and nickel p...Category
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