Edward Wormley for Dunbar Hall Console Table, Rosewood
View Similar Items
Edward Wormley for Dunbar Hall Console Table, Rosewood
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer),Dunbar Furniture (Maker)
- Dimensions:Height: 29.25 in (74.3 cm)Width: 31 in (78.74 cm)Depth: 10.5 in (26.67 cm)
- Style:American Craftsman (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1960s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Very good vintage condition with only minor signs of wear. Small faint scratches to surface finish.
- Seller Location:St.Petersburg, FL
- Reference Number:Seller: Dunbar mirrored console- Dave1stDibs: LU802930347042
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 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.
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Rosewood and Red Onyx Mirrored Back ConsoleBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in St.Petersburg, FLA rare console table designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar Furniture. The table features traditional design elements that are so often seen in many of his pieces along with Dunbar’s ...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
MaterialsOnyx
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Toad Stool TablesBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in St.Petersburg, FLGorgeous pair of rare "Toad Stool Tables" designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, circa 1960's. In keeping with his design philosophy these tables encompass traditional and modernist ...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsMetal
$6,900 / set - Edward Wormley for Dunbar Large Tulip Lamp TableBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in St.Petersburg, FLAn elegant and unusual lamp table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Ash pedestal, chrome petals, and rosewood feet. Very good vintage condition with exceptionally minimal wear. Inconsi...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsChrome
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Tiered Coffee Table, Walnut with Rosewood Drawer PullBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in St.Petersburg, FLElegant coffee table designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Table features a rectangular shape with unique leg detail. Below are two open shelves on either side of a drawer accented ...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsRosewood, Walnut
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Floor LampBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in St.Petersburg, FLFloor lamp designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Features a "snack" table base consisting of brass legs, walnut stem, carpathian elm burl wood table top trimmed in walnut. Light com...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
MaterialsBrass
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Club ChairsBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in St.Petersburg, FLStunning pair of oak framed chairs by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, referred to as “Edward’s Chair”. New fabric and great original finish. Chairs...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Club Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery, Oak
$3,250 / set
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Interlocking Tables, Coffee / ConsoleBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Buffalo, NYA rare set of nesting tables designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. This set can be arranged together or separately in multiple configurations, cocktail table and console table, Stun...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsLaminate, Walnut
- Clean Lined Console Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Atlanta, GAClean lined console table, designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, American, circa 1960s. This table is a versatile size and can be used as a console or so...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
MaterialsMahogany, Walnut
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Modular Console Table Circa 1950sBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Boynton Beach, FLBeautiful set of tables designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Architectural and Mid Century Modern in design. Tables have a simple elegant design. Both tables are marked. One long short console table...Category
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
MaterialsFormica, Ash
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Interlocking TablesBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Los Angeles, CAA rare set of nesting tables designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. This set can be arranged together or separately in multiple configurations. On display in our Los Angeles Arts D...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
MaterialsFormica, Ash
- Early Elegant Custom Edward Wormley Console for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILAn elegant Wormley console with 9 x 9 travertine marble tile insets to form one long marble rectangular form. Most likely a custom form. This console bares the early green Dunbar label.Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
MaterialsWood
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Console CabinetBy Edward WormleyLocated in Dallas, TXA beautiful walnut and mahogany console with stone top. Designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar.Category
Vintage 1950s Cabinets
MaterialsWalnut