Edward Wormley "Shell" Console Table for Dunbar
View Similar Items
Edward Wormley "Shell" Console Table for Dunbar
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 30 in (76.2 cm)Width: 32.5 in (82.55 cm)Length: 30 in (76.2 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:Mahogany,Lacquered
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1940s
- Condition:
- Seller Location:North Hollywood, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU81202042692
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.
- 1940s Edward Wormley for Dunbar Bleached Mahogany Shell Form Console TableBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in St. Louis, MOEarly signed example of Edward Wormley's work for Dunbar, circa 1941, bleached mahogany hand-carved shell with wave detail around top. Stamped DUNBAR logo to back. Current one shown ...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Console Tables
MaterialsMahogany
- 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
- 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
- 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 Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated 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