Pair Milo Baughman Swiveling Chairs Mid-Century Modern

Milo Baughman was one of the most agile and adept modern American furniture designers of the late 20th century. A prolific lecturer and writer on the benefits of good design — he taught for years at Brigham Young University — Baughman (whose often-scrambled surname is pronounced BAWF-man) focused almost exclusively on residential furnishings, such as chairs, sofas and benches. He had a particular talent for lounge chairs, perhaps the most sociable piece of furniture.

Like his fellow adoptive Californians Charles and Ray Eames, Baughman’s furniture has a relaxed and breezy air. He was famously opposed to ostentatious and idiosyncratic designs that were made to excite attention. While many of his chair designs are enlivened by such effects as tufted upholstery, Baughman tended to let his materials carry the aesthetic weight, most often relying on seating and table frames made of sturdy and sleek flat-bar chromed metal, and chairs, tables and cabinets finished with highly-figured wood veneers.

Like his colleagues Karl Springer and the multifarious Pierre Cardin, Baughman’s designs are emblematic of the 1970s: sleek, sure and scintillating.

As you will see from the furniture presented on 1stDibs, Milo Baughman’s designs for the likes of Drexel Furniture, Glenn of California and — for five decades — Thayer Coggin are ably employed as either the heart of a décor or its focal point.

Known to collectors for his strict adherence to quality with respect to the furniture he manufactured or imported for sale, designer and entrepreneur Maurice Villency brought the highest standards of excellence into his stores. He created and built his own furniture in a loft studio in Manhattan and eventually opened a handful of retail outlets in the New York metro area that offered sleek and stylish furnishings from all over the world. 

Villency is among the small business owners that helped introduce the Scandinavian modern style to the United States during the postwar era, when tastemakers really sold Americans on the earthier, homier aspects of Scandinavian design.

Villency also imported pieces from French, Italian and Belgian designers and proudly promoted their fine wares in the showrooms of his four stores. Additional Villency family-owned stores were eventually established and traded under the name Preferred Seating. 

Villency was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His father was a cabinetmaker, and when he was 15, his family moved to the U.S. and settled in New York State. At 19, Villency moved to New York City and began working for the Pullman Couch Company. 

Villency showed great skill in his work, quickly becoming the plant manager — and later head designer – for the furniture company. In the early 1930s, Pullman moved their entire operations to Chicago, and Villency chose to stay behind. Determined to follow his own path, Villency opened a workshop on 8th Street in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood and found increasing success.

Like the Danish cabinetmakers he so admired, Villency designed chairs and other pieces and worked with fine woods such as teak, a sought-after material among mid-century modern designers. Early on, he made an impression with a sectional sofa he designed, and he would later tout the versatile appeal of sectional sofas and other modular furniture in full-page print ads for his retail locations. On a good day, a prospective buyer could stroll into Maurice Villency and find designs by French brand Roche Bobois, Danish manufacturer Farsø Stolefabrik, American modernist Milo Baughman and more. 

Maurice’s company eventually came to be called Villency Design Group and today, his grandson Eric Villency — who works in product design, interiors and more — is CEO. 

On 1stDibs, find vintage Maurice Villency tables, storage pieces and seating.