Low Table By Edward Wormley For Dunbar
View Similar Items
Low Table By Edward Wormley For Dunbar
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 15 in (38.1 cm)Width: 40 in (101.6 cm)Depth: 21 in (53.34 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1949
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Sagaponack, NY
- Reference Number:Seller: 39021stDibs: LU8903770734
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.
- Low Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYAn ebonized mahogany low table with a lower shelf and singe drawer on cylindrical dowel legs.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- Cork Low Table by Edward WormleyBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Sagaponack, NYA simple and elegant square low table with a raised cork top on a mahogany 'Parsons' base.Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMahogany, Cork
- Walnut Low Table by Edward WormleyBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYA rectangular dark walnut low table having a black laminate top and distinctive triangular legs.Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Magazine Box Low Table by Edward WormleyBy Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYAn ebonized mahogany low table with magazine boxes on the ends.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsSteel
- Low Table or Bench by Edward WormleyBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYA low table or bench with an ebonized walnut frame which rises slightly above the table surface and can hold a loose cushion if used as a bench.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Low Lounge Chair by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Sagaponack, NYA low slipper chair with the original faux alligator texture yellow upholstery.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Slipper Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Coffee TableBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Cathedral City, CA1960s round oak ceruse finish coffee table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Elliptical coffee table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in Brussels, BELarge elliptical-shaped coffee table, the black laminate (formica) top surrounded by wood. The top rests on four stainless steel legs with double spacers assembled by screws receivin...Category
Mid-20th Century Belgian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood
- Bold Coffee Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward WormleyLocated in New York, NYBold mahogany coffee table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. USA, circa 1950. Signed with Dunbar tag. U-shaped legs supporting...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
- 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 for Dunbar Coffee TableBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA tall cocktail table designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Center Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- Edward Wormley Burl Coffee Table for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Los Angeles, CACoffee table designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, c.1950s, USA. The rectangular table features an ebonized base with six turned wood legs and stretchers that reach the length of th...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMaple, Burl