Gilbert Rohde Art Deco Dining Table for Heywood Wakefield
View Similar Items
Gilbert Rohde Art Deco Dining Table for Heywood Wakefield
About the Item
- Creator:Gilbert Rohde (Designer),Heywood-Wakefield Co. (Maker)
- Dimensions:Height: 29.5 in (74.93 cm)Width: 68 in (172.72 cm)Depth: 36 in (91.44 cm)
- Style:Art Deco (Of the Period)
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1930
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Hamilton, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU135526484163
Gilbert Rohde
Pioneering self-taught industrial designer, writer and teacher Gilbert Rohde helped define the earliest phase of modernism in the United States. He is one of the most influential figures of 20th-century design and is credited with helping legendary mid-century modern furniture manufacturer Herman Miller avert financial disaster during the Great Depression.
Born in New York City, Rohde studied painting at the Art Students League after high school. He found lucrative employment, first as a political cartoonist and then as a catalog illustrator for American department stores. He was particularly enthralled with drawing furnished interiors.
Rohde began to design furniture in his spare time. He traveled to the Bauhaus school in Germany and the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, and drew on the Art Deco movement and the work of designers such as Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann in his early pieces. Rohde opened his own studio in 1929 and secured private and commercial commissions. His clients would come to include formidable furniture makers Heywood-Wakefield and Troy Sunshade, and his innovative bentwood furnishings for them were practical and intended for the modern consumer.
In 1930, Rohde met Herman Miller founder D.J. De Pree in the company’s Michigan showroom during a business trip. By then, Rohde had a long list of prominent clients and his furniture had been exhibited in museums and galleries. Herman Miller was weathering a devastating slowdown in business, and the American furniture industry had generally been hit hard by the Great Depression.
Rohde boldly informed De Pree that the brand’s furniture had become outdated, which was part of the reason the company was in financial jeopardy. Homes had become smaller and could no longer accommodate the large Gothic– and Victorian–style furnishings and traditional reproductions of period bedroom suites that Herman Miller was offering at the time, Rohde explained.
Rohde secured a contract to design for the Michigan manufacturer. He championed the use of exotic woods and tubular steel, and created streamlined, unadorned bedroom furniture for Herman Miller — collections that included convenient vanities, which were unconventional pieces for De Pree’s company back then.
In 1933, Rohde oversaw the design of two bedrooms featuring sleek Herman Miller furniture — including innovative storage pieces he designed — as part of an International–style exhibit at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair. The installation garnered acclaim for De Pree’s brand all over the world and afforded Rohde the opportunity to execute on his visionary ideas in front of a global audience. Rohde later designed lighting, seating and more for Herman Miller and was extensively involved in the company's marketing strategy and other areas of the business.
In 1942, Herman Miller, anticipating a postwar economic boom, began to produce office furniture for the first time, but its legacy is in the home. Working with legendary designers such as Ray and Charles Eames, Isamu Noguchi and Alexander Girard, the manufacturer fostered some of the boldest expressions of what we now call mid-century modern style.
Find vintage Gilbert Rohde coffee tables, lounge chairs, table lamps and other items on 1stDibs.
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.
- Czech Art Deco Table LampLocated in Hamilton, OntarioCzech Art Deco table lamp with original electric cord.Category
Early 20th Century Czech Art Deco Table Lamps
MaterialsArt Glass
- Large Argenta W. Kage for Gustavsberg Art Deco Pottery Bowl with Applied SilverBy GustavsbergLocated in Hamilton, OntarioThis large turquoise or 'argenta' Art Deco pottery bowl was done by Wilheim Kage for Gustavsberg of Sweden in approximately 1939. The bowl is done with scrolled handles and a pedesta...Category
Early 20th Century Swedish Art Deco Decorative Bowls
MaterialsSilver
- Art Deco Marble Picture FramesLocated in Hamilton, OntarioLovely pair of Art Deco marble picture frame holders done in a geometric design typical of the Art Deco period. These also come with two...Category
Vintage 1920s Art Deco Picture Frames
MaterialsMarble
$495 / set - Antique Art Deco Figural Marching Band Drum & Drumsticks Cigarette Table LighterLocated in Hamilton, OntarioThis antique table lighter is unsigned, but presumed to have originated from France and date to approximately 1920 and done in the period Art Deco style. The lighter is done in a realistic manner and resembles a marching band drum with two drum sticks...Category
Early 20th Century French Art Deco Tobacco Accessories
MaterialsMetal, Brass
- Antique Art Deco Czech Molded & Reverse Painted Fruit Basket Table LampLocated in Hamilton, OntarioThis antique table lamp was made by Flora of the Czech Republic and dates to approximately 1920 and done in the period Art Deco style. The lamp or accent light is made of molded glass with a reverse painted shade...Category
Early 20th Century Czech Art Deco Table Lamps
MaterialsGlass
- Art Deco Nudy Lady ThermometerLocated in Hamilton, OntarioCelluloid nude lady Art Deco thermometer.Category
20th Century Art Deco Scientific Instruments
- Early Gilbert Rohde for Heywood Wakefield Bentwood Coffee TableBy Gilbert Rohde, Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Bainbridge, NYGilbert Rohde for Heywood Wakefield Steam Bent Maple Coffee Table, C. 1930. Featuring a floating, laminated steam bent Maple surface, flared upturned ends, rectangular Maple lift, ...Category
Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsPlywood, Maple
- Gilbert Rohde Art Deco Dining Table for the Herman Miller Paldao SeriesBy Gilbert Rohde, Herman MillerLocated in Dallas, TXUncommonly seen 1940s dining / entry table designed by Gilbert Rohde for Herman Miller. The table has a beautiful marquetry design inlaid into the top and is accompanied by one leaf....Category
Early 20th Century Art Deco Dining Room Tables
MaterialsFaux Leather, Mahogany
- Heywood Wakefield Mid Century Dining TableBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Countryside, ILHeywood Wakefield mid century dining table Table measures: 50 wide x 34 deep x 29.5 inches high All pieces of furniture can be had i...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsWood
- Heywood Wakefield Drop Leaf Dining TableBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Bradenton, FLA traditional style drop leaf dining table made by Heywood Wakefield. The drop leaves lift, supported with butterfly brackets to form a rectangular table that seats six. The table ex...Category
Mid-20th Century American Drop-leaf and Pembroke Tables
MaterialsMaple
- Heywood Wakefield Mid-Century Wishbone Dining TableBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in Countryside, ILHeywood Wakefield mid-century wishbone dining table. Table measures: 58 wide x 40 deep x 29 inches high; each leaf is 18.25 inches wide, makin...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsWood
- Vintage MCM Heywood Wakefield Drop Leaf Dining TableBy Heywood-Wakefield Co.Located in west palm beach, FLFantastic vintage MCM dining table. Made by the iconic Heywood Wakefield. Beautiful drop leaf design makes this perfect for city apartments. All the joys of a large dining table with the ability to drop the sides and slip into a small area. Looks totally like a normal table with the sides extended. Perfect as a an everyday dining...Category
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsWood