Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
MID-CENTURY MODERN STYLE
Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern furniture. The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living.
ORIGINS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Emerged during the mid-20th century
- Informed by European modernism, Bauhaus, International style, Scandinavian modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture
- A heyday of innovation in postwar America
- Experimentation with new ideas, new materials and new forms flourished in Scandinavia, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in Europe
CHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
- Simplicity, organic forms, clean lines
- A blend of neutral and bold Pop art colors
- Use of natural and man-made materials — alluring woods such as teak, rosewood and oak; steel, fiberglass and molded plywood
- Light-filled spaces with colorful upholstery
- Glass walls and an emphasis on the outdoors
- Promotion of functionality
MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
- Charles and Ray Eames
- Eero Saarinen
- Milo Baughman
- Florence Knoll
- Harry Bertoia
- Isamu Noguchi
- George Nelson
- Danish modernists Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen, whose emphasis on natural materials and craftsmanship influenced American designers and vice versa
ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS
- Eames lounge chair
- Nelson daybed
- Florence Knoll sofa
- Egg chair
- Womb chair
- Noguchi coffee table
- Barcelona chair
VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
The mid-century modern era saw leagues of postwar American architects and designers animated by new ideas and new technology. The lean, functionalist International-style architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the 1930s by Philip Johnson and others. New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale in open-plan houses with long walls of glass.
Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair, respectively.
Architect, writer and designer George Nelson created with his team shades for the Bubble lamp using a new translucent polymer skin and, as design director at Herman Miller, recruited the Eameses, Alexander Girard and others for projects at the legendary Michigan furniture manufacturer.
Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts. Materials were repurposed too: The Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs using surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests.
The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by celebrated manufacturer Knoll, a chief influencer in the rise of modern design in the United States, thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field. The seating that Knoll created for office spaces — as well as pieces designed by Florence initially for commercial clients — soon became desirable for the home.
As the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century furniture designers caught the spirit.
Classically oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise; the British expatriate T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb, who designed holistic groups of sleek, blond wood furniture, and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in minimalist teak dining tables and lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.
Generations turn over, and mid-century modern remains arguably the most popular style going. As the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture for the living room, dining room, bedroom and elsewhere on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history.
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768
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208
13
1,596
642
343
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316
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95
92
76
51
50
23
22
7
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1,371
221
10
1,012
257
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38
288
354
205
33
7
1,340
723
368
239
227
998
470
407
361
213
1,596
1,414
1,435
61
34
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22
Style: Mid-Century Modern
Arne Vodder Desk for Sibast – Rosewood and Metal
By Sibast, Arne Vodder
Located in PARIS, FR
Rosewood desk by Arne Vodder for Sibast. This rosewood desk has a very nice look thanks to the wood grain and the use of chromed metal brings a modern touch to the desk which makes t...
Category
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Metal
Arne Jacobsen Grand Prix Dining Table or Desk
Located in Munich, DE
Grand prix teak dining table designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1957. Perfect untouched condition.
Category
20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Børge Mogensen Drop Leaf Desk in Teak for Søborg
Located in Toronto, Ontario
A really special drop-leaf desk by Børge Mogensen for Søborg Mobler, Denmark.
This example produced in teak with a stainless steel base and a very rare White laminate drop-leaf. ...
Category
1950s Danish Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Stainless Steel
Rare Desk Set by BBPR for Olivetti Synthesis, circa 1960
By Studio BBPR, Olivetti
Located in Saint-Ouen, FR
Rare desk set by BBPR for Olivetti Synthesis, including a desk, a storage unit, an office chair, a lamp and a wastepaper basket
storage unit: 76 x ...
Category
1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Metal
Little Box for SESC Pompeia by Lina Bo Bardi , 2022, Marcenaria Baraúna
Located in Tokyo, Tokyo
Design：Lina Bo Bardi, Marcelo Ferraz, André Vainer
Material：Solid Pine, Melamine laminate, with casters
Designed by Lina Bo Baldi in 1986, this children's desk was created for insta...
Category
1880s Brazilian Antique Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Wood
Custom French Modern Neoclassical Carved & Cerused Oak Desk, Jean-Michel Frank
Located in New York, NY
An Elegant French Miid-Century Modern Neoclassical Desk in the style of Jean Michel Frank for Maison Jansen circa 1930. The writing table is a work combining exceptional design, time...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary French Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Oak
French Modern Neoclassical Ebony & Leather Desk /Writing Table, JeanMichel Frank
Located in New York, NY
An elegant French Mid-Century Modern Neoclassical desk in the style of Jean-Michel Frank. The piece was hand made by a small French workshop and is original in design, handsome and f...
Category
1940s French Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Leather, Hardwood
$7,840 Sale Price
20% Off
Brazilian Mid Century Modern Desk with Armchair, Geraldo de Barros for Unilabor
Located in New York, NY
Available today, this Brazilian Modern desk with Chair designed by Geraldo de Barros for Unilabor in the 50s is nothing less than spectacular!
The desk is made with Brazilian rosewo...
Category
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Metal
Italian Arco Desk set by B.P.P.R for Olivetti 1963
By Olivetti
Located in Byron Bay, NSW
Beautiful Arco desk set by Olivetti, with the side table too
very rare to find in this condition also the complete set
Part of the "Arco" series, this sculptural piece features b...
Category
1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Metal
Modernist Table from USA
Located in Sagaponack, NY
A rectangular stainless steel framed dining table/ desk with a white marble top. Two tables could be placed end to end to make one continuous ...
Category
1970s American Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Marble, Chrome, Steel
$9,500
Writing desk, Italian manufacture. C1950s.
Located in Baranzate, IT
Beautiful Vintage desk with two drawers and front storage rack bordered by iron wire mesh. Italian manufacture. C1950s.
Category
1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Metal
Desk by Roberto Gabetti, Aimaro Isola and Guido Drocco, Italy, 1970s
Located in Milano, Lombardia
Desk by Roberto Gabetti, Aimaro Isola and Guido Drocco, Italy, 1970s. Manufactured by Arbo. Limited series. Chromed metal, wood. Reference: F. Ferrari, Gabetti e Isola...
Category
1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Metal
Mid 20th Century Vintage Traditional Royal Furniture Drop Top Writing Desk
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Experience the timeless sophistication of our Vintage Traditional Royal Furniture Drop Top Writing Desk. Crafted with meticulous attention to detail, this piece exudes classic Americ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Wood
Vintage Swedish Sycamore Drop Leaf Desk
Located in London, GB
A stylish and very well made vintage Swedish sycamore drop leaf desk, dating from the 1960’s.
This is of amazing quality and has a wonderful design. It is large and impressive, with...
Category
1960s Swedish Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Wood
White Mid Century Table Made in´50s Czechia, Designed by František Jirák
By Frantisek Jirak, Tatra
Located in Brandys nad Labem, Středočeský kraj
White mid century table made in´50s Czechia. Designed by František Jirák and made by Tatra Nábytok. The table is made out of lacquered w...
Category
1950s Czech Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Glass, Wood, Lacquer
Postmodern 'Martino' Dining Table by Gigi Sabadin for Emme, Italy, 1973
By Emme, Gigi Sabadin
Located in Antwerp, BE
Gigi Sabadin dining table, Emme Italy, 1970s, beechwood
The table show smart architectural lines and well-considered use of materials, which are clearly visible in the little det...
Category
1970s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Glass, Beech
Mid-Century Modern Italian Desk, Wood and Glass, 1950s
Located in Brussels, BE
Mid-Century Modern Italian Desk, Wood and Glass, 1950s.
Category
1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Glass, Wood
Mid Century Modern French Black Lacquered metal table or desk
Located in London, GB
Unusual French industrial style black lacquered metal dining table or desk.
Category
1950s French Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Metal
Willy Van Der Meeren Desk for Tubax, circa 1950, Formica, Metal, Wood, 38 Avai
Located in Brussels, BE
Willy Van Der Meeren desk for Tubax, circa 1950, Formica, metal, wood- 38 available.
Category
1950s Belgian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Metal
1950s Television table/desk from Televise
By Teleavia
Located in London, Lambeth
Super Stylist table originally used for vintage TV easily re used as a desk
angled black legs with polished oak surface sitting on castors make it easy
for mobility. Cc Italian
Category
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Oak
Michel Boyer Console Table with Modular Aluminum Structure in X
By Michel Boyer
Located in Grenoble, FR
Michel Boyer (1935-2011)
Console table with modular aluminum structure in X, supporting a glass top Around 1968
AG Bibliography:- FAVARDIN Patrick, Les Décorateurs des 1970s, éd....
Category
1960s French Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Aluminum
Mid-Century Modern TL2 Cavalletto desk/dining table by Franco Albini for Poggi
Located in Brussels, BE
Mid-Century Modern TL2 Cavalletto desk/dining table by Franco Albini for Poggi, 1950s
Category
1950s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Wood
Rosewood Desk Brazilian Midcentury Design by Joaquim Tenreiro, 1960s
Located in New York, NY
Original condition.
Category
1960s Brazilian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Wood
1960's French Bureau/Secetaire Desk
Located in London, Lambeth
Excellent storage desk with 3 draws, glass top shelve and pull down table
surface. Lockable unit compact design .Cc 1960's French
Category
Mid-20th Century French Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Satin
Karl Springer Parsons form desk wrapped in faux lizard embossed leather
Located in Chicago, IL
A faux lizard embossed leather parsons desk / writing table. Attributed to Karl Springer.
Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Wood
Desk by A. Bender Madsen and Ejner Larsen for Willy Beck Cabinetmaker
Located in Pawtucket, RI
Interesting and rare Danish designed desk by A. Bender Madsen and Ejner Larsen and manufactured by Willy Beck. Desk features a 21-inch drop-leaf. Ta...
Category
1940s Danish Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Rosewood, Teak
Williams Hairpin Writing Desk Walnut Navy
Located in Cincinnati, US
A thin, elegant and light desk that can be customized to any color desired. This handcrafted item perfectly blends industrial hairpin legs with a beveled wooden top. The irregular be...
Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Steel
$840 / item
"Kroma" Desk by Antonia Astori for Driade, Italy, 1980s
Located in Brussels, BE
Architect, designer, and entrepreneur, Antonia Astori began her own design activity within the Driade company, founded with her brother Enrico and Adelaide Acerbi, to whom she offers highly professional and creative achievements.
For Driade organizes the exhibition space for trade shows and promote their corporate visibility.
Also plans stores Marithè and Francois...
Category
1980s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Wood
Desk Designed by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mölgaard Nelson for Söfborg Möbelfabrik
Located in Stockholm, SE
Desk designed by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mölgaard Nielsen for Söfborg Möbelfabrik,
Denmark, 1950s.
Teak.
This desk designed by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mölgaard-Nielsen is a staple design...
Category
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Teak
Handcrafted 1960s Danish Oak Desk, Deep Patina, Sculptural Mid-Century design
Located in Store Heddinge, DK
A cabinetmaker-built Danish small desk with the most stunning and deep patina. Its light brown tone carries a walnut-like glow. Horizontal carvings on the cabinet doors lend the piec...
Category
1960s Danish Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Brass
Franco Albini Mahogany mid-centry Italian Table Model TL-22 produced by Poggi
Located in Barcelona, ES
Franco Albini & Franca Helg.
Dining table model no. TL22.
Manufactured by Poggi,
Italy, 1958.
Mahogany.
Measurements:
180.3 cm x 104.1 cm x 73 H cm.
70.98 in x 40.98 in x 28.74 in.
Literature:
Giuliana Gramigna, Repertorio 1950/1980, Milan, 1985, p. 123.
Franco Albini, was born in 1905 and died in 1977. He spent his childhood and part of his youth in Robbiate in Brianza, where he was born. Albini, as an adolescent moved with his family to Milan. Here he enrolled in the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic and graduated in 1929. He started his professional activity in the studio of Gio Ponti and Emilio Lancia, with whom he collaborated for three years. At the 1929 International Exhibition in Barcelona (where Gio Ponti curated the Italian pavilion and Mies van der Rohe realized that of Germany) and in Paris where, as Franca Helg recounted, he had the opportunity to visit the studio by Le Corbusier.
In those three years, the works he carried out are admittedly of the twentieth century imprint. It is the meeting with Edoardo Persico that marked a clear turning point towards rationalism and the approach to the group of editors of "Casabella". The partly ironic and partly very harsh comments of the Neapolitan critic to a series of drawings, made by Albini for the design of some office furniture, caused him a great disturbance. “I spent days of real anguish - Albini recalls - I had to answer all the questions. I also had a fever, a large and long fever. "
The meted provoked Albini to openen a professional studio in via Panizza with Renato Camus and Giancarlo Palanti. The group of architects began to deal with public housing by participating in the competition for the Baracca district in San Siro in 1932 and then building the IFACP neighborhoods: Fabio Filzi (1936/38), Gabriele D'Annunzio and Ettore Ponti (1939).
During this period, Albini also worked on his first villa (Pestarini), which Giuseppe Pagano, architect and critic of the time, presented as follows: “This coherence, which the superficial rhetoric of fashionable jugglers calls intransigence, and which is instead the basis of understood between the fantasy of art and the reality of the craft, in Franco Albini, it is so rooted that it transforms theory into a moral attitude ".
But it is above all in the context of the exhibitions that the Milanese master experienced his compromise between that "rigor and poetic fantasy" of which Pagano speaks, coining the elements that became a recurring theme in his . The opening in 1933 of the new Triennale headquarters in Milan, in the Palazzo dell'Arte, was an important opportunity to express the strong innovative character of rationalist thinking, a gym in which to freely experiment with new materials and new solutions, but above all a "method". "Cultivated as a communication laboratory, the art of setting up was for the rationalists of the first generation what the perspective had been for the architects of humanism: the field open to a hypothesis of space that needed profound reflections before landing the concreteness of the construction site ".
Together with Giancarlo Palanti, Albini on the occasion of the V Triennale di Milano set up the steel structure house (with R. Camus, G. Mazzoleni, G. Minoletti and with the coordination of G. Pagano), for which he also designed the 'furniture. At the following Triennale of 1936, Persico dided, together with a group of young designers gathered by Pagano in the previous edition of 1933, Franco Albini took care of the preparations of the home exhibition. The setting up of Stanza per un uomo, at that same Triennale, allows us to understand the acute and ironic approach of Albini, as a man and as a designer: "Celebrating the beauty of mechanics was the imperative to which, for example, the surprising displays by Franco Albini who managed, in the subtle way of a refined and rarefied style, to sublimate their practical content in the metaphysics of daring still lifes: flying objects which marked in the void refined frames and metal intricacies the nodes of a fantastic cartography where industry finally became art free from purpose ".
That same year Albini and Romano designed the exhibition of the Ancient Italian Goldsmithery: vertical uprights, simple linear rods, designed the space. A theme, of the "flagpole", seemed to be the center of the evolution of production and the creative process. The concept is reworked over time, with the technique of decomposition and recomposition typical of Albinian design: in the preparation of the Scipione Exhibition and contemporary drawings (1941) the tapered flagpoles, on which the paintings and display cases were hung, are supported by a grid of steel cables; in the Vanzetti stand (1942) they take the V-shape; in the Olivetti shop in Paris (1956) the polished mahogany uprights support the shelves for the display of typewriters and calculators.
The flagpole is found, however, also in other areas. In the apartments he designed, it is used as a pivot on which the paintings can be suspended and rotated to allow different points of view, but at the same time as an element capable of dividing the spaces. The Veliero bookcase...
Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Mahogany
Midcentury Italian Rattan Desk or Vanity Table, circa 1960s
Located in London, GB
Midcentury Italian rattan desk or vanity table, (circa 1960s). An absolute charmer and stylish piece of the era. There are two horizontal surfaces ...
Category
1960s Italian Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Rattan
$754 Sale Price
42% Off
Bloch Desk by Joaquim Tenreiro
Located in London, England
Bloch Desk by Joaquim Tenreiro
Category
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Hardwood
Price Upon Request
Fine French Mid-Century Lacquered Desk by Raphael
Located in Long Island City, NY
Raphael (Raphael Raffel, 1912-2000) Rare Beka lacquer pedestal desk with three drawers, a black lacquered base and bronze details.
Category
1950s French Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Bronze
Price Upon Request
Fine French 1950s Leather Covered Desk and Chairs by Jacques Adnet
Located in Long Island City, NY
Jacques Adnet (1900 - 1984) - A fine French mid-century leather-covered curved desk with patinated metal details, a compass style cherry frame with tapered legs finished with silver-...
Category
1950s French Vintage Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Leather, Cherry
Price Upon Request
Bloch Desk by Joaquim Tenreiro
Located in London, England
This piece belonged to BLOCH EDITORES S.A. BUILDING which commissioned its interiors to Joaquim Tenreiro and Sergio Rodrigues.
This desk presents both a patrimony label with an identification number as well as labels from "Tenreiro Moveis e Decoracoes...
Category
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Desks and Writing Tables
Materials
Hardwood
Price Upon Request
Mid-century Modern desks and writing tables for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a broad range of unique Mid-Century Modern desks and writing tables for sale on 1stDibs. Many of these items were first offered in the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artisans have continued to produce works inspired by this style. If you’re looking to add vintage desks and writing tables created in this style to your space, the works available on 1stDibs include tables, case pieces and storage cabinets, seating and other home furnishings, frequently crafted with wood, metal and other materials. If you’re shopping for used Mid-Century Modern desks and writing tables made in a specific country, there are Europe, Italy, and North America pieces for sale on 1stDibs. While there are many designers and brands associated with original desks and writing tables, popular names associated with this style include Cassina, Lawson-Fenning, Charlotte Perriand, and Paul McCobb. It’s true that these talented designers have at times inspired knockoffs, but our experienced specialists have partnered with only top vetted sellers to offer authentic pieces that come with a buyer protection guarantee. Prices for desks and writing tables differ depending upon multiple factors, including designer, materials, construction methods, condition and provenance. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $299 and tops out at $184,000 while the average work can sell for $4,773.
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