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Modern Shelves

MODERN STYLE

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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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 chaircrafted 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.

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Style: Modern
Period: 1950s
Hanging Cabinet by George Nakashima
Located in San Francisco, CA
This rare and unique walnut hanging cabinet by George Nakashima is a beautiful and functional piece of modern furniture with sliding doors. The cabinet features an overhang top with one free edge above two doors that conceal one adjustable shelf. Crafted from high-quality American black walnut wood, this cabinet has been fully restored at the Nakashima workshop...
Category

1950s American Vintage Modern Shelves

Materials

Walnut

Hanging Cabinet by George Nakashima
Located in San Francisco, CA
This rare and unique walnut hanging cabinet by George Nakashima is a beautiful and functional piece of modern furniture with sliding doors. The cabinet features an overhang top with one free edge above two doors that conceal one adjustable shelf. Crafted from high-quality American black walnut wood, this cabinet has been fully restored at the Nakashima workshop...
Category

1950s American Vintage Modern Shelves

Materials

Walnut

Gustave Gautier Shelve
By Gustave Gautier
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Shelve by Gustave Gautier (1911-1980) base in metal lacquered black the top is heavy glass ( probably saint gobain glass).
Category

1950s French Vintage Modern Shelves

Materials

Iron

LB7, “Infinito” Bookcase by Franco Albini, Poggi
Located in Milano, Lombardia
In the LB7 library of the Poggi production (1956), we find all the principles long treated by Albini on the theme of the light upright, which in this modular syst...
Category

1950s Italian Vintage Modern Shelves

Materials

Wood

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Franco Albini LB7 Bookcase in Teak Wood by Poggi Pavia 1950s Italy
Located in Montecatini Terme, IT
LB7 bookcase composed of a single module with shelves and a storage unit with two doors, made in veneered solid teak wood, and black lacquered metal details. Designed by Franco Alb...
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IKEA – Guide – Shelve Unit – Niels Gammelgaard – 1980s
Located in NIEUWKUIJK, NB
Shelving System Guide by Niels Gammelgaard for Ikea in 1985. The metal structure is in grey lacquered steel and supports the shelves. The shelves are colored on one side and white on...
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Franco Albini Rosewood Mid-Century Modern “LB7” Modular Bookcase for Poggi, 1957
Located in Vicenza, IT
LB7 bookcase, designed by Franco Albini and manufactured by Poggi in 1957. Modular bookstore composed by upholds, containers with flying and doors, shelve. The industrial standard for every product component allows permanent and different solutions, from the bearing structures to the elements. The structure does not need anchorages to the wall and can be placed in the middle of the space. This set is composed of 3 modules, ten shelves, and three containers. It is made of Rosewood, iron, and brass. Excellent vintage condition. Franco Albini was born in Robbiate in 1905, and after his childhood and part of his youth, he moved to Milan. He graduated at Politecnico of Milan, Faculty of Architecture, in 1929, and He collaborated for three years in Giò Ponti and Emilio Lancia’s office. He probably had his international contacts here, at The International Exposition of 1929 in Barcelona and Paris, where he visited le Corbusier’s office, as Franca Helg used to tell. Throughout these first three years, his works were undoubtedly related to XIXth Century. His meeting with Edoardo Persico marks an evident turnover towards rationalism and writers for “Casabella” magazine. Persico’s thoughtful and ironical comments on some of Albini’s drawings for office furniture caused him deep upsetting. “I spent days of real anxiety – tells Albini – I had to answer all questions. I had a long fever”. The new phase that the meeting provoked begins with opening his own first office at Via Panizza with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti. The group of Architects starts taking care of social housing, participating in the competition for the Baracca neighborhood in 1932, and then realizing the Ifacp neighborhood: Fabio Filzi (1936/38), Gabriele D’Annunzio, and Ettore Ponti (1939). During those years, He also worked for his first private villa (Pestarini). It is mainly in the context of exhibitions that the Italian architect experiments the compromise between rigor and poetic fantasy that Pagano was talking about; He conceived all the elements that would become recurrent in all types of his work – Architecture, Interiors, Design. The 1933 opening of the new Triennale of Milano, in Palazzo dell’Arte, becomes an occasion to express the highly innovative character of rationalist thinking. In this place, to experiment with new materials and solutions, but most of all a “method”. Young rationalist architects cultivated the art of exhibiting as a communication lab, an open field to space solutions. Albini, with Giancarlo Palanti, sets the steel structure house (with R. Camus, G. Mazzoleni, G. Minoletti and coordination by G. Pagano) designing also its furniture. For the next Triennale in 1936, marked by Persico’s early death, Franco Albini, together with a group of young architects around Pagano, takes care of the exhibition of Dwelling, where he presented 3 types of lodgings. In the same year, Albini and Romano design the exhibition for Ancient Italian jewelry: vertical uprights, simple linear poles design space. This element is recurring in other works, like the Scipione exhibition (1941), Vanzetti stand (1942), and Olivetti shop in Paris (1956). The architectural space is readable through a grid, introducing a third dimension, the vertical one, with a sense of lightness and transparency. Upright is also used in design objects, such as the Veliero bookcase...
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1950s Italian Vintage Modern Shelves

Materials

Brass, Iron

Shelve Cabinet by Dutch Modernist H. Wouda, 1924
Located in Antwerp, BE
Modernist yellow, black and red shelve unit, Hendrik Wouda, H. Pander & Zonen, Netherlands 1924 Painted pine The Interbellum, the period between the two World Wars, was a time when...
Category

1920s Dutch Vintage Modern Shelves

Materials

Belgian Black Marble

Shelve Cabinet by Dutch Modernist H. Wouda, 1924
Shelve Cabinet by Dutch Modernist H. Wouda, 1924
H 28.35 in W 35.83 in D 11.03 in
Franco Albini Infinito Modular Bookcase
Located in Milano, IT
Franco Albini (1905-1977) Infinito original book unit. Large modular bookcase made up of 6 vertical uprights, container elements with hinged doors and lo...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Modern Shelves

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Teak

Franco Albini Infinito Modular Bookcase
Franco Albini Infinito Modular Bookcase
H 114.18 in W 169.3 in D 15.75 in
George Nakashima Sliding Door Low Cabinet
Located in BROOKLYN, NY
Gorgeous George Nakashima cabinet features a single slab laurel top with one free edge above two doors concealing two adjustable shelves. Perfect low cabinet also could be a wonderfu...
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Mid-20th Century American Modern Shelves

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Walnut

Mid-Century Modern "Lb7" Bookcase by Franco Albini for Poggi, Italy, 1950s
Located in Brussels, BE
Mid-Century Modern "Lb7" Bookcase by Franco Albini for Poggi, Italy, 1950s Height is adjustable
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1950s Italian Vintage Modern Shelves

Materials

Wood

Franco Albini "Infinito" Wall Unit for Cassina
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Franco Albini wall unit for Cassina, c.2010s Italy. This modular shelving system, first designed in the 1950s, was relaunched in 2008 and feat...
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Late 20th Century Italian Modern Shelves

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Teak

George III Chinoiserie Bar Cabinet
Located in Westwood, NJ
An English chinoiserie bar or display cabinet, the break bowfront brass gallery top above a delicately Chocolate chinoiserie hand-painted interior of two galleried shelves with pierced cabinet...
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21st Century and Contemporary Vietnamese Modern Shelves

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George III Chinoiserie Bar Cabinet
George III Chinoiserie Bar Cabinet
H 60 in W 53 in D 18.5 in
Tilted Wall Shelve in Solid French Oak
Located in Paris, FR
Wall shelve tilted 100% solid French oak, from sustainable forests, France. Laying on the floor, fixed with a rail, supplied, to wall on left side. Backs in oak veneer. From Anjou i...
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21st Century and Contemporary French Modern Shelves

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Oak

Tilted Wall Shelve in Solid French Oak
Tilted Wall Shelve in Solid French Oak
H 82.68 in W 79.14 in D 9.26 in
Wall Hanging Shelving Unit in Solid Oak by Elliott Marks
Located in Glendale, CA
Solid white oak wall hanging shelves. Thin shelves and rounded faces add visual lightness. Meticulous precise joinery creates a sturdy surface. Hardware h...
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2010s Modern Shelves

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Franco Albini Italian Midcentury Dark Wood Bookcase Lb7 for Poggi, 1950s
Located in Reggio Emilia, IT
Italian dark wood shelves bookcase with floor and ceiling uprights, designed by Franco Albini in 1956 for Poggi Pavia, shelves and container with wood veneer adjustable in height and...
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1950s Italian Vintage Modern Shelves

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Previously Available Items
Modular wall bookcase, Vittorio GREGOTTI, Lodovico MENEGHETTI & Giotto STOPPINO
Located in Milano, Lombardia
This bookcase is an incredible and unobtainable item. A rarity to be appreciated for the beauty of the fluted shelf design, its height, and the different ...
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1950s Italian Vintage Modern Shelves

Materials

Wood

Rosewood Standing Cabinet Shelves
Located in Antwerp, BE
Rosewood standing cabinet shelves.
Category

1950s European Vintage Modern Shelves

Materials

Rosewood

Rosewood Standing Cabinet Shelves
Rosewood Standing Cabinet Shelves
H 55.12 in W 27.56 in D 11.82 in
Carl Auböck Walnut and Brass Book Shelf
Located in London, GB
Vintage shelf designed and made by Carl Auböck II, Vienna, circa 1950. Six horizontal brass bars connect two walnut triangles whose vertexes hang on the...
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1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Shelves

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Brass

Carl Auböck Walnut and Brass Book Shelf
Carl Auböck Walnut and Brass Book Shelf
H 10.24 in W 17.72 in D 8.27 in
Carl Aubock Beautiful Book Shelf
Located in London, GB
Incredible elegantly simple book shelf by the brass master and designer Carl Aubock. All the brass component were created in his Austrian workshop that still runs today. The sculptur...
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1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Shelves

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Brass

Carl Aubock Beautiful Book Shelf
Carl Aubock Beautiful Book Shelf
H 11.42 in W 17.92 in D 8.27 in
Exceptional Large Dark Oak Wardrobe by Carl Aubock
Located in London, GB
Rare oak wardrobe by Carl Aubock with 8 original hooks. Great piece with a fantastic colour
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1950s Austrian Vintage Modern Shelves

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Brass

Modern shelves for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a broad range of unique Modern shelves for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage shelves created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include case pieces and storage cabinets, wall decorations, tables and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with wood, metal and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Modern shelves made in a specific country, there are Europe, Italy, and North America pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original shelves, popular names associated with this style include Marcel Wanders, Moooi, Souda, and Casey Lurie. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for shelves differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $11 and tops out at $88,764 while the average work can sell for $3,091.

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