Encore Utility Chest / Desk Cabinet by Wakefield
View Similar Items
Encore Utility Chest / Desk Cabinet by Wakefield
About the Item
- Creator:Heywood-Wakefield Co. (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 34 in (86.36 cm)Width: 48 in (121.92 cm)Depth: 18 in (45.72 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. In great original vintage condition with the finish in wonderful shape .
- Seller Location:Cincinnati, OH
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU925129677032
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.
- Mid Century Encore Headboard by Heywood WakefieldBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Cincinnati, OHA full sized Mid Century headboard in the champagne finish with sliding double doors having tapered solid brass pulls . The doors can be position...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Beds and Bed Frames
MaterialsWood
- Encore Dresser / Chest Mirror for Heywood WakefieldBy Leo JiranekLocated in Cincinnati, OHA rare dresser chest moveable mirror with solid maple frame and slanted mirror surface for the top of a tall chest or dresser . Designed by Leo Jiranek for the Heywood Wakefield furn...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Table Mirrors
MaterialsMirror, Maple
- Teak Vanity Desk Dresser by Borge Mogensen for Soborg DenmarkBy Børge MogensenLocated in Cincinnati, OHA very well designed teak wood vanity dresser with a top drawer that has a pull out and flip up mirror. The front of the piece folds down revealing storage slots to the left and thre...Category
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Vanities
MaterialsTeak
- Mid Century Walnut Desk by Vista of California in the style of George NelsonBy Vista of CaliforniaLocated in Cincinnati, OHA dark walnut desk with three full sized side drawers and a smaller drawer in front of the chair area all with sculptural brushed aluminum pulls . The satin black frame gives the pie...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsAluminum
- Arne Vodder Executive Teak Desk for Sibast DenmarkBy Arne VodderLocated in Cincinnati, OHA dark teakwood executive desk with three drawers to each side and inset finger pulls to the fronts, the back side has two small bookcase cubies . The perfect desk for home or office...Category
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsTeak
- Mid Century Desk in the style of Hans Wegner DenmarkBy Hans J. WegnerLocated in Cincinnati, OHA very nice simple smaller sized writing desk with two drawers having bent wood handles and upper area storage shelve under the floating top . In the kneehole there's another set bac...Category
Mid-20th Century Swedish Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsWood
- 1950s Heywood Wakefield Encore long dresser & mirror art deco mid century modernBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Virginia Beach, VAAn exceptional 1950s, Heywood Wakefield Encore 8 drawer low dresser in a beautiful wheat color. Matching mirror included. Great rounded edges with elongated drawer pulls that span ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsMaple
- Antique British Colonial Campaign Chest with Pullout DeskLocated in Palm Beach, FLImpressive 19th century campaign chest with seven drawers handcrafted in camphor wood and featuring a pullout desk with nooks, drawers and a leather writi...Category
Antique 19th Century Chinese British Colonial Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsWood
- Mid-Century Modern Chest/Desk, John Stuart, Paul Frankl DesignBy Johnson Furniture Company, Paul Frankl, John StuartLocated in Stamford, CTMid Century Modern Chest/Desk, John Stuart, Paul Frankl Design A recently white lacquered seven graduating drawer dresser or chest having an interior desk that folds down to reveal a 13 1/2 inch deep by 37 1/2 inch wide writing surface desk...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsChrome
- Scandinavian Design Solid Oak And Leather Modular Desk Into A Chest Of DrawersLocated in Tourcoing, FRScandinavian Design Solid Oak And Leather Modular Desk 175cm collapsing into a chest of drawers 110cm long by pushing each side ( or just one! ) to each o...Category
21st Century and Contemporary European Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writ...
MaterialsLeather, Oak
- Antique French Abattant Desk Fall Front Secretary Chest Drawers Renaissance OakLocated in Tyler, TXExquisite 19th Century Antique French Oak Renaissance Revival Abattant Chest of Drawers and Desk with Fall Front Secretary Top~~Leather Writi...Category
Antique 1880s French Renaissance Revival Desks and Writing Tables
MaterialsOak
- 17th Century Spanish Walnut Bureau/Desk, circa 1690, Chest of DrawersLocated in Miami, FL17th century Spanish walnut bureau/desk, circa 1690. Chest of drawers.Category
Antique Late 17th Century Spanish Spanish Colonial Commodes and Chests o...
MaterialsWalnut
$6,375 Sale Price25% Off