Edward Wormley for Dunbar Cabinet
View Similar Items
Edward Wormley for Dunbar Cabinet
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer),Dunbar Furniture (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 31 in (78.74 cm)Width: 49 in (124.46 cm)Depth: 20 in (50.8 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Refinished. Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU5395220125732
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.
Dunbar Furniture
Revered for its handcrafted and highly collectible mid-century modern sofas, coffee tables and other furnishings, Dunbar Furniture was founded in 1910 in Berne, Indiana, but it didn’t gain widespread recognition until the ’30s, following the introduction of its president to a designer who would leave an indelible mark on the company’s legacy: Edward Wormley.
After a stint at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Oswego, Illinois-born Wormley worked as an interior designer for Marshall Field’s before joining Dunbar in 1931. Initially focused on developing the company’s cheapest furniture line, which could be bought with soap coupons, he was soon leading Dunbar Furniture into a new era of residential furniture for modern American homes. He would serve as the company’s design director for over three decades, designing about 150 pieces each year.
During that time, he oversaw the production of designs in a wide range of materials, with influences ranging from Scandinavian modernism to Art Deco. There were modern upholstery pieces, like swiveling lounge chairs and low-slung sofas, and experiments with textural wood on bar carts and cabinets as well as minimal, sculptural tables and functional office furniture. A passionate collector of Tiffany Studios lamps, Wormley used their glass tiles in Dunbar tables in 1956. He also worked on the reproduction of pieces by designers such as Jean-Michel Frank and Richard Riemerschmid.
One standout Dunbar Furniture collection was Janus, introduced in the 1960s, with Austrian-born ceramicists Otto and Gertrud Natzler. These pieces see the Natzlers’ uniquely artful ceramic tiles set into several styles of wooden tables. They remain some of the most sought-after mid-century modern Dunbar pieces on the vintage market today. During the peak of his design career and, indeed, the height of Dunbar Furniture’s history, Wormley amassed a whopping 30 Good Design awards between 1950 and 1955 through the “Good Design” exhibition, hosted by the Chicago Merchandise Mart and the Museum of Modern Art. Dunbar today produces a limited selection of archival Wormley designs, but many sales of original Dunbar pieces are through the resale market.
Find a collection of authentic vintage Dunbar Furniture today on 1stDibs.
- Chrome Coffee Table by Roger Sprunger for DunbarBy Roger Sprunger, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Los Angeles, CA1970s chrome coffee table designed by Roger Sprunger for Dunbar. Thick 3/4" glass top with light scratches, 42" diameter. Arched chrome base can be flipped upside down and used both ...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsChrome
- 1940's French Carved Oak CabinetLocated in Los Angeles, CAStunning light oak cabinet from France, 1940's. Original light wood finish in nice vintage condition showing great age and patina to wood. Beautiful ...Category
Mid-20th Century French Cabinets
MaterialsBrass
- 1940s French Carved Wood Cabinet by Charles DudouytBy Charles DudouytLocated in Los Angeles, CAIncredible carved wood storage cabinet by Charles Dudouyt from France, 1940s. Beautiful carved wood circle detail on two front doors with checkered wood...Category
Mid-20th Century French Cabinets
MaterialsBrass
- Dresser by Maison RegainBy Maison RegainLocated in Los Angeles, CAFantastic three drawer dresser by Maison Regain from France, 1970's. Made of solid elm wood showing beautiful grain. Low profile, perfect as a...Category
Mid-20th Century French Dressers
MaterialsElm
$5,800 - 1940s French Scalloped Oak SideboardLocated in Los Angeles, CAIncredible long wood sideboard from France, 1940s. Beautiful carved details on cabinet doors, scalloped detail along side edges and carved detailed...Category
Mid-20th Century French Cabinets
MaterialsIron
- 1940's Long French Oak SideboardLocated in Los Angeles, CAIncredible long wood sideboard in the style of Charles Dudouyt from France, 1940's. Beautiful carved wood squares with circle detail on cabinet doors and carved tapered legs. Newly r...Category
Mid-20th Century French Cabinets
MaterialsBrass
- Restored Edward Wormley Dunbar Walnut & Leather 8-Drawer Dresser or CabinetBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Philadelphia, PAThis dresser was designed by decorated design icon Edward Wormly for equally revered manufacturer Dunbar Furniture. Known for hundreds of successful designs and exceptional quality, ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
MaterialsLeather, Walnut
- Restored Edward Wormley Dunbar White Enamel Walnut Leather Cabinet Dresser 1950sBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Philadelphia, PAA stunning large double dresser in restored white enamel case, with warmly contrasting figured and book-matched walnut drawer fronts, having brown leather wrapped handles. This well-...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
MaterialsEnamel
- Mahogany Cabinet by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYAn ebonized mahogany cabinet with seven graduated, recessed-pull drawers, on a recessed plinth leather wrapped base.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsMahogany
- Edward Wormley, Pair of Rare Dressers, Walnut, Steel, Dunbar, America, 1950sBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in High Point, NCA pair of rare modernist cabinets or dressers. In stained walnut, legs in steel. Designed by Edward Wormley. Produced by Dunbar, Berne, Indiana, 1950s. Other designers of the per...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
MaterialsSteel
- Edward J. Wormley for Dunbar Cabinet with Asian HardwareBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in St. Louis, MOMid-Century Modern Edward J. Wormley for Dunbar cabinet with brass Asian hardware. All original dark had rubbed finish on ribbon mahogany, top will be polished and touched up prior t...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsBrass
- Cinnabar Lacquered Cabinet by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Sagaponack, NYA two-level cabinet having fantastic storage and scale, with a rich custom cinnabar lacquer. The lower level has bi-folding doors concealing a bank of drawers; the upper section features doors with inset antique Chinese printing blocks.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Cabinets
MaterialsWalnut