Modern Blanket Chests
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.
Late 20th Century American Modern Blanket Chests
Wood, Pine, Paint
Mid-18th Century English Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Mahogany
1860s American Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Pine
1860s Romanian Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Steel
Mid-19th Century Hungarian Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Pine
Late 19th Century Hungarian Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Pine
Early 20th Century Norwegian Modern Blanket Chests
Paint
Early 19th Century Scandinavian Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Pine
1830s Romanian Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Steel
1880s Austrian Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Pine
1990s English Modern Blanket Chests
Pine, Paint
1860s European Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Brass, Steel
1860s European Antique Modern Blanket Chests
Steel
Late 20th Century Philippine Modern Blanket Chests
Marble
1970s American Vintage Modern Blanket Chests
Oak
1970s American Vintage Modern Blanket Chests
Brass