Edward Wormley for Dunbar Table or Bench with Magazine Display
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer),Dunbar Furniture (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 15.25 in (38.74 cm)Width: 66 in (167.64 cm)Depth: 17 in (43.18 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1960
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Very good original condition, some light blemishes and scratches from normal use.
- Seller Location:Dallas, TX
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU87859569473
Edward Wormley
As the longtime director of design for the Dunbar furniture company, Edward Wormley was, along with such peers as George Nelson at Herman Miller Inc., and Florence Knoll of Knoll Inc., one of the leading forces in bringing modern design into American homes in the mid-20th century. Not an axiomatic modernist, Wormley deeply appreciated traditional design, and consequently his vintage seating, storage cabinets, bar carts and other work has an understated warmth and a timeless quality that sets it apart from other furnishings of the era.
Wormley was born in rural Illinois and as a teenager took correspondence courses from the New York School of Interior Design. He later attended the Art Institute of Chicago but ran out of money for tuition before he could graduate. Marshall Field hired Wormley in 1930 to design a line of reproduction 18th-century English furniture; the following year he was hired by the Indiana-based Dunbar, where he quickly distinguished himself. It was a good match.
Dunbar was an unusual firm: it did not use automated production systems; its pieces were mostly hand-constructed. For his part, Wormley did not use metal as a major component of furniture; he liked craft elements such as caned seatbacks, tambour drawers, or the woven-wood cabinet fronts seen on his Model 5666 sideboard of 1956. He designed two lines for Dunbar each year — one traditional, one modern — until 1944, by which time the contemporary pieces had become the clear best sellers.
Many of Wormley’s signature pieces — chairs, sofas, tables and more — are modern interpretations of traditional forms. His 1946 Riemerschmid Chair — an example is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art — recapitulates a late 19th-century German design. The long, slender finials of his Model 5580 dining chairs are based on those of Louis XVI chairs; his Listen-to-Me Chaise (1948) has a gentle Rococo curve; the “Precedent” line that Wormley designed for Drexel Furniture in 1947 is a simplified, pared-down take on muscular Georgian furniture. But he could invent new forms, as his Magazine table of 1953, with its bent wood pockets, and his tiered Magazine Tree (1947), both show. And Wormley kept his eye on design currents, creating a series of tables with tops that incorporate tiles and roundels by the great modern ceramicists Otto and Gertrud Natzler.
As the vintage items on 1stDibs demonstrate, Edward Wormley conceived of a subdued sort of modernism, designing furniture that fits into any decorating scheme and does not shout for attention.
Dunbar Furniture
Revered for its handcrafted and highly collectible mid-century modern sofas, coffee tables and other furnishings, Dunbar Furniture was founded in 1910 in Berne, Indiana, but it didn’t gain widespread recognition until the ’30s, following the introduction of its president to a designer who would leave an indelible mark on the company’s legacy: Edward Wormley.
After a stint at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Oswego, Illinois-born Wormley worked as an interior designer for Marshall Field’s before joining Dunbar in 1931. Initially focused on developing the company’s cheapest furniture line, which could be bought with soap coupons, he was soon leading Dunbar Furniture into a new era of residential furniture for modern American homes. He would serve as the company’s design director for over three decades, designing about 150 pieces each year.
During that time, he oversaw the production of designs in a wide range of materials, with influences ranging from Scandinavian modernism to Art Deco. There were modern upholstery pieces, like swiveling lounge chairs and low-slung sofas, and experiments with textural wood on bar carts and cabinets as well as minimal, sculptural tables and functional office furniture. A passionate collector of Tiffany Studios lamps, Wormley used their glass tiles in Dunbar tables in 1956. He also worked on the reproduction of pieces by designers such as Jean-Michel Frank and Richard Riemerschmid.
One standout Dunbar Furniture collection was Janus, introduced in the 1960s, with Austrian-born ceramicists Otto and Gertrud Natzler. These pieces see the Natzlers’ uniquely artful ceramic tiles set into several styles of wooden tables. They remain some of the most sought-after mid-century modern Dunbar pieces on the vintage market today. During the peak of his design career and, indeed, the height of Dunbar Furniture’s history, Wormley amassed a whopping 30 Good Design awards between 1950 and 1955 through the “Good Design” exhibition, hosted by the Chicago Merchandise Mart and the Museum of Modern Art. Dunbar today produces a limited selection of archival Wormley designs, but many sales of original Dunbar pieces are through the resale market.
Find a collection of authentic vintage Dunbar Furniture today on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Dallas, TX
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Dunbar Magazine Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Dallas, TXTriangular magazine table model 5313 by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Table consists of two mahogany magazine bins, sap grain walnut top with mahogany base, ...Category
Early 20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- Edward Wormley Cocktail Table, Dunbar 1950sBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Dallas, TXCocktail table designed by Edward Wormley and manufactured by Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Large Scale Square Coffee Table in Mahogany for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXThis beautiful, large-scale coffee table was designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar Furniture in the 1960s and is constructed with a mahogany parquetry top and a dark mahogany frame w...Category
Mid-20th Century Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- Edward Wormley Magazine Table for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXMagazine table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, 1959. Table constructed of oak, brass and leather, very good original condition.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Large Coffee Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXBeautiful, large coffee table designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Constructed with bleached mahogany top with dark mahogany base with brass. Table is in excellent condition.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Edward Wormley Coffee TableBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Dallas, TXCoffee/cocktail Table designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1960s Unknown Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut, Mahogany
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Table Bench with Brass Magazine DisplayBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Los Angeles, CADunbar coffee table or bench (Model 5933a) with built-in brass rods for suspending magazines. One other option is to recess a glass top over the rods to use as table surface. Signed ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Walnut and Teak Coffee Table or Bench by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Kansas City, MOWalnut and teak coffee table or bench designed by Edward Wormley, produced by Dunbar. Expertly refinished. The walnut top is inlayed with a teak veneer design (see photos). We also h...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsTeak, Walnut
- Classic Edward Wormley for Dunbar BenchBy Edward WormleyLocated in St.Petersburg, FLAn Edward Wormley for Dunbar upholstered (half) and open mahogany (the other half) bench. Brass spacers, original fabric, circa 1970s.Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsMahogany
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Style "Long John" Bench, Coffee Table, 1950sBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Bainbridge, NYLong Edward Wormley for dunbar style walnut "long john" Bench. Coffee Table. Bed End. Featuring a longer rectangular slat-style Walnut surface, turned edge...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsWalnut
- "Long John" Coffee Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Westport, CTIntroducing the epitome of mid-century elegance: the "Long John" Coffee Table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, meticulously restored to its original glory by Stamford Modern. Crafted wi...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Edward Wormley Table, Bench, Dunbar, Brass, MahoganyBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Miami, FLCool Dunbar table/ bench/ magazine rack designed by Edward Wormley. Mahogany and brass.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsBrass