Modern Secretaires
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
2010s American Modern Secretaires
Brass, Steel
21st Century and Contemporary French Modern Secretaires
Shagreen Stingray, Palmwood
20th Century German Modern Secretaires
Wood
1860s French Antique Modern Secretaires
Mahogany, Satinwood
1820s German Antique Modern Secretaires
Elm, Walnut
Mid-19th Century French Antique Modern Secretaires
Wood
Early 1900s English Antique Modern Secretaires
Hardwood
1990s Spanish Modern Secretaires
Wood, Cherry
1810s German Antique Modern Secretaires
Walnut
Mid-19th Century French Antique Modern Secretaires
Mahogany, Oak
Early 19th Century German Antique Modern Secretaires
Walnut
Late 19th Century Asian Antique Modern Secretaires
Wood
Mid-20th Century Belgian Modern Secretaires
Oak