Early Gilbert Rohde for Heywood Wakefield Bentwood Coffee Table

About the Item
- Creator:Heywood-Wakefield Co. (Manufacturer),Gilbert Rohde (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 30.5 in (77.47 cm)Depth: 18 in (45.72 cm)
- Style:Art Deco (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:Plywood,Laminated
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:Circa 1930
- Condition:Refinished. Wear consistent with age and use. With minor nicks and staining to surface and without repairs.
- Seller Location:Bainbridge, NY
- Reference Number:
Gilbert Rohde
Pioneering self-taught industrial designer, writer and teacher Gilbert Rohde helped define the earliest phase of modernism in the United States. He is one of the most influential figures of 20th-century design and is credited with helping legendary mid-century modern furniture manufacturer Herman Miller avert financial disaster during the Great Depression.
Born in New York City, Rohde studied painting at the Art Students League after high school. He found lucrative employment, first as a political cartoonist and then as a catalog illustrator for American department stores. He was particularly enthralled with drawing furnished interiors.
Rohde began to design furniture in his spare time. He traveled to the Bauhaus school in Germany and the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, and drew on the Art Deco movement and the work of designers such as Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann in his early pieces. Rohde opened his own studio in 1929 and secured private and commercial commissions. His clients would come to include formidable furniture makers Heywood-Wakefield and Troy Sunshade, and his innovative bentwood furnishings for them were practical and intended for the modern consumer.
In 1930, Rohde met Herman Miller founder D.J. De Pree in the company’s Michigan showroom during a business trip. By then, Rohde had a long list of prominent clients and his furniture had been exhibited in museums and galleries. Herman Miller was weathering a devastating slowdown in business, and the American furniture industry had generally been hit hard by the Great Depression.
Rohde boldly informed De Pree that the brand’s furniture had become outdated, which was part of the reason the company was in financial jeopardy. Homes had become smaller and could no longer accommodate the large Gothic– and Victorian–style furnishings and traditional reproductions of period bedroom suites that Herman Miller was offering at the time, Rohde explained.
Rohde secured a contract to design for the Michigan manufacturer. He championed the use of exotic woods and tubular steel, and created streamlined, unadorned bedroom furniture for Herman Miller — collections that included convenient vanities, which were unconventional pieces for De Pree’s company back then.
In 1933, Rohde oversaw the design of two bedrooms featuring sleek Herman Miller furniture — including innovative storage pieces he designed — as part of an International–style exhibit at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. The installation garnered acclaim for De Pree’s brand all over the world and afforded Rohde the opportunity to execute on his visionary ideas in front of a global audience. Rohde later designed lighting, seating and more for Herman Miller and was extensively involved in the company's marketing strategy and other areas of the business.
In 1942, Herman Miller, anticipating a postwar economic boom, began to produce office furniture for the first time, but its legacy is in the home. Working with legendary designers such as Ray and Charles Eames, Isamu Noguchi and Alexander Girard, the manufacturer fostered some of the boldest expressions of what we now call mid-century modern style.
Find vintage Gilbert Rohde coffee tables, lounge chairs, table lamps and other items on 1stDibs.
Heywood-Wakefield Co.
Created by the 19th-century merger of two venerable Massachusetts furniture makers, Heywood-Wakefield was one of the largest and most successful companies of its kind in the United States. In its early decades, the firm thrived by crafting affordable and hugely popular wicker pieces in traditional and historical styles. In the midst of the Great Depression, however, Heywood-Wakefield reinvented itself, creating instead the first modernist furnishings to be widely embraced in American households.
The Heywoods were five brothers from Gardner, Massachusetts, who in 1826 started a business making wooden chairs and tables in their family shed. As their company grew, they moved into the manufacture of furniture with steam-bent wood frames and cane or wicker seats, backs and sides. In 1897, they joined forces with a local rival, the Wakefield Rattan Company, whose founder, Cyrus Wakefield, got his start on the Boston docks buying up lots of discarded rattan, which was used as cushioning material in the holds of cargo ships, and transforming it into furnishings. The conglomerate initially did well with both early American style and woven pieces, but taste began to change at the turn of the 20th century and wicker furniture fell out of fashion. In 1930, the company brought in designer Gilbert Rohde, a champion of the Art Deco style. Before departing in 1932 to lead the Michigan furniture maker Herman Miller, Rohde created well-received sleek, bentwood chairs for Heywood-Wakefield and gave its colonial pieces a touch of Art Deco flair.
Committed to the new style, Heywood-Wakefield commissioned work from an assortment of like-minded designers, including Alfons Bach, W. Joseph Carr, Leo Jiranek and Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, a Russian nobleman who had made his name in Europe creating elegant automotive body designs.
In 1936, the company introduced its “Streamline Modern” group of furnishings, presenting a look that would define the company’s wares for another 30 years. The buoyantly bright, blond wood — maple initially, later birch — came in finishes such as amber “wheat” and pink-tinted “champagne.” The forms of the pieces, at once light and substantial, with softly contoured edges and little adornment beyond artful drawer pulls and knobs, were featured in lines with names such as “Sculptura,” “Crescendo” and “Coronet.” It was forward-looking, optimistic and built to last — a draw for middle-class buyers in the Baby Boom years.
By the 1960s, Heywood-Wakefield began to be seen as “your parents’ furniture.” The last of the Modern line came out in 1966; the company went bankrupt in 1981. The truly sturdy pieces have weathered the intervening years well, having found a new audience for their blithe and happy sophistication.
Find a collection of vintage Heywood-Wakefield desks, chairs, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Bainbridge, NY
- Return PolicyA return for this item may be initiated within 3 days of delivery.
- Set of 3 Heywood Wakefield Style Solid Maple Nesting Tables, 1950'sBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Bainbridge, NYSet of three solid maple nesting tables in the style of Heywood Wakefield. Featuring a neutral, narrow rectangular form, smooth rounded face small footprint overall. Versatile. Compa...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Nesting Tables and Stacking Ta...
MaterialsMaple
- Tapio Wirkkala for Asko "Rhythmic" Coffee Table, 1950sBy Asko, Tapio WirkkalaLocated in Bainbridge, NYTapio Wirkkala Asko Finland birch and exotic wood veneer coffee table, circa 1958. Featuring a squared multi layered wood surface, supported by four chrome-plated steel legs and bras...Category
Vintage 1950s Finnish Scandinavian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass, Steel
- T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings for Widdicomb Square Mahogany Coffee TableBy T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Widdicomb Furniture Co.Located in Bainbridge, NYT. H. Robsjohn Gibbings for Widdicomb square mahogany side table. Coffee Table. Circa 1960. Featuring a solid board surface, beautifully gra...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- Tommi Parzinger for Charak Modern Teak and Marble Coffee TableBy Charak Furniture Company, Tommi ParzingerLocated in Bainbridge, NYTommi Parzinger for Charak Modern Marble and Mahogany Coffee Table, 1950s. Featuring a sturdy, inlaid mahogany framework, circular surface divided quadrant area inset with Rosa Norve...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMarble
- Torbjorn Afdal for Bruksbo Norway Rosewood "Krobo" Coffee Table, BenchBy Torbjørn Afdal, BruksboLocated in Bainbridge, NYTorbjorn Afdal solid dark rosewood table, bench by Bruksbo Mellenstrands Norway. Featuring a sturdy, lipped and, balanced rectangular framework in smoothly grained dark Rosewood, wit...Category
Vintage 1960s Norwegian Scandinavian Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsSteel
- Paul McCobb For Winchendon Travertine & Black Iron Coffee Table, 1950'sBy Paul McCobb, WinchendonLocated in Bainbridge, NYPaul McCobb Travertine and Black Enameled Iron Rod Coffee Table. Featuring a supported x brace Black enameled Wrought Iron framework, capped feet, with separate round 36"D natural .7...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsIron
- Art Deco Gilbert Rohde Heywood Wakefield Extension Dining TableBy Heywood-Wakefield Co., Gilbert RohdeLocated in Pasadena, TXAn rare Art Deco dining table designed by Gilbert Rohde and made by Heywood Wakefield. Leaves at each end flip up to extend the table from 48" to 72". Solid walnut construction. As shown in the last image, we also have sets of four or six Gilbert Rohde Heywood Wakefield...Category
Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Dining Room Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Heywood Wakefield Wheat Finish Coffee TableBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Chattanooga, TNThere's a rich, deep, aged honey patina on this wheat finish birch / maple. We achieved a a near perfect muted grain and color match to the top surface that we delicately restored. This sleek, study, understated and classic modern coffee table embraces mid-century minimalism design. The "X" base with intersecting spanners adds an appealing architectural elegance that remains timeless to this day. Sculpted, and assembled with no visible hardware. We're certain you won't find a more sublime vintage rendition of this coffee table anywhere. Stamped by the maker with illegible date. Excellent restored vintage condition. Top has been professionally refinished by our in-house cabinet shop.Only very minor age appropriate imperfections remain on the legs and spanners. Heywood Wakefield Coffee Table...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMaple
- Heywood Wakefield M1585 Coffee TableBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Highland, INThis rare Heywood Wakefield model M1585 coffee table is not just a very uncommon and beautiful form, it is in fantastic original condition including its champaign finish. The design ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMaple
- Heywood Wakefield Ebonized Maple Revolving Coffee TableBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Brooklyn, NYIconic, Art Deco inspired, Mid-Century Modern, solid ebonized maple, round coffee table by Heywood Wakefield Co. features a 32 inch round "Lazy Susan" t...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMaple
- Dark Wood Heywood Wakefield Swivel Round Coffee TableBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Hopewell, NJA handsome round dark oak small coffee table by Heywood Wakefield having 4 splayed legs and a top that swivels.Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsOak
- Vintage Revolving Top Coffee Table by Heywood-WakefieldBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Trenton, NJElevate your living space with the timeless charm of this Vintage Revolving Top Coffee Table by Heywood-Wakefield, available now from Secondhand Stories...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood, Maple