Modern Furniture
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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
1910s English Vintage Modern Furniture
Silver, Sterling Silver
1910s Danish Vintage Modern Furniture
Paper
1910s Danish Vintage Modern Furniture
Paper
1910s British Vintage Modern Furniture
Sterling Silver
1910s British Vintage Modern Furniture
Agate, Sterling Silver
1910s German Vintage Modern Furniture
Porcelain
1910s American Vintage Modern Furniture
Wood
1910s American Vintage Modern Furniture
Paint, Paper
1910s Austrian Vintage Modern Furniture
Bentwood
1910s Japanese Vintage Modern Furniture
Paint, Acrylic
1910s Swedish Vintage Modern Furniture
Ceramic
1910s Spanish Vintage Modern Furniture
Wool
1910s English Vintage Modern Furniture
Sterling Silver
1910s French Vintage Modern Furniture
Mahogany, Wicker
1910s European Vintage Modern Furniture
Wood
1910s Italian Vintage Modern Furniture
Paint
1910s Austrian Vintage Modern Furniture
Wood
1910s Austrian Vintage Modern Furniture
Canvas
1910s North American Vintage Modern Furniture
Paper
1910s American Vintage Modern Furniture
Rosewood, Wood
1910s European Vintage Modern Furniture
Acrylic
1910s Austrian Vintage Modern Furniture
Leather, Wood
1910s American Vintage Modern Furniture
Canvas
1910s German Vintage Modern Furniture
Ceramic
1910s Persian Vintage Modern Furniture
Wool
1910s Unknown Vintage Modern Furniture
1910s French Vintage Modern Furniture
Paper
1910s French Vintage Modern Furniture
Mahogany
1910s Austrian Vintage Modern Furniture
Brass, Iron
1910s English Vintage Modern Furniture
Paper
1910s American Vintage Modern Furniture
Iron