Located in BUNGAY, SUFFOLK
Designer : Gilbert Rohde
Model ; Dresser 4041 Honeymoon Furniture for Young America,
Maker : Kroehler
Exhibited : 'America at Home' at the New York World's Fair 1940.
Created by Gilbert Rohde, 1940's foremost furniture designer, expressly to demonstrate modern living displayed in the 'America at Home' building at the New York World's Fair 1940.
Honeymoon furniture by Kroehler is outstanding in contemporary furniture design.
Notice its space saving compactness, its sturdiness, its freedom from dirt catching corners.
Honeymoon furniture offers comfort, convenience and economy never before possible in the small home or apartment
The use of two different coloured woods to create a two-tone effect is very striking and complements the simple form. This unusual chest of drawers is a signature piece that injects character into any interior.
The raised sides sit proud of the top elevating the chest creating an elegant tray effect. The front is fitted with three drawers with original wooden knobs in contrasting dark brown laurel. The sides have a projecting section of contrasting dark brown laurel at the front which defines the form. Inverted triangular feet. "Kroehler Made" metal tag. Designer unknown.
Kroehler
In 1902, Peter E. Kroehler bought the Naper ville Lounge Co., a maker of wooden lounge chairs and upholstered furniture. Kroehler built a new factory in Naperville in 1913 after the original facility was destroyed by a tornado. Soon thereafter, he renamed the company Kroehler Manufacturing Co. This enterprise soon operated across the country and employed several hundred men and women in the Chicago area. By the middle of the 1940s, with over $20 million in annual sales, Kroehler was the second-largest furniture maker in the United States. During the 1960s, when the company employed close to 8,000 people around the country, annual revenues passed $100 million. The company struggled during the 1970s, closing its historic Naperville factory in 1978 and ending its operations in the area. In 1981 Kroehler was acquired by the ATR Group of Northbrook, which put the company up for sale. By the early 2000s, furniture was still manufactured under the Kroehler name by two unrelated companies, one in North Carolina and the other in Ontario, Canada.
Gilbert Rhode : American, 1894 - 1944
Gilbert Rohde (1894-1944) is best known for helping to create the modern design at Herman Miller Inc. Gilbert Rohde furniture design was focused on mass production and bringing modern products to the greatest number of consumers. He is also credited with designing the first examples of biomorphic furniture in America-which would ultimately shape mid century modernism.
US industrial designer, born in New York. He became familiar with cabinetmaking in his father's shop. He studied at the Art Students League and Grand Central School of Art in New York. Early work was as a drama and music critic, cartooninst, reporter, and furniture illustrator. He traveled to France and Germany in 1927 and was inspired by modernism.
He opened his own office in New York in 1927, designing furniture and showrooms, and consulting with manufacturers like General Electric and Hudson Motor Car Company.
In 1931 HeywoodWakefield Company introduced a compact armless leatherette side chair with bentwood rear legs designed by Rohde, which sold 250,000 over the next eight years. Rohde also developed a later version for the Herman Miller Furniture Company, which was sold dis-assembled and made by what Rohde called an "automobile type of assembly."
By 1929 he had established a relationship with D.J. Depree, president of the Herman Miller Furniture Company in Zeeland, MI and prepared some designs for him. Dupree appointed him director of design there in 1932 as part of his decision to shift the company’s orientation from traditional to modern design. His first modern design for the company, a No. 2185 Group bedroom suite was shown at the Chicago Century of Progress.
Also in 1932, Rohde exhibited his furniture designs in a "Design for Machine" exhibit in Philadelphia, along with designs of Russel Wright. The Herman Miller Clock...
Category
1950s North American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Birdseye Maple Case Pieces and Storage Cabinets
