Custom Dunbar Game Table
View Similar Items
Custom Dunbar Game Table
About the Item
- Creator:Dunbar Furniture (Designer),Edward Wormley (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 28.5 in (72.39 cm)Width: 32 in (81.28 cm)Depth: 32 in (81.28 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1960's
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Excellent.
- Seller Location:Los Angeles, CA
- Reference Number:1stDibs: 11120780601320
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
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.
- Capitola Table by Lawson-FenningBy Lawson-FenningLocated in Los Angeles, CAThe Capitola table features a series of geometric shapes stacked on top of each other with solid wood details. Available in American walnut or white oak...Category
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsWalnut
$1,985 / item - Amphora Table by Danny KaplanLocated in Los Angeles, CAThe Amphora Table is handmade studio pottery by ceramic artist by Danny Kaplan. Please note exact dimensions may vary. Born in New York City and raised in Aix-en-Provence, France,...Category
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsCeramic
$4,500 / item - Arthur Table by Danny KaplanLocated in Los Angeles, CAThe Arthur Table is handmade studio pottery by ceramic artist by Danny Kaplan. Please note exact dimensions may vary. Born in New York City and raised in Aix-en-Provence, France, Da...Category
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsCeramic
$4,650 / item - Wing Table by Danny KaplanLocated in Los Angeles, CAThe Wing Table is handmade studio pottery by ceramic artist by Danny Kaplan. Please note exact dimensions may vary. Born in New York City and raised in...Category
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsCeramic
$3,650 / item - Capitola Table by Lawson-FenningBy Lawson-FenningLocated in Los Angeles, CAThe Capitola table features a series of geometric shapes stacked on top of each other with solid wood details. Available in American walnut or white oak...Category
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsWalnut
$1,985 / item - Capitola Table by Lawson-FenningBy Lawson-FenningLocated in Los Angeles, CAThe capitola table features a series of geometric shapes stacked on top of each other with solid wood details. Available in American walnut or white oak...Category
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsOak
$1,985 / item
- Wormley Game Table for Dunbar, Solid Walnut & Olive BurlwoodBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Dallas, TXEdward Wormley Game Table for Dunbar, Solid Walnut & Olive Burlwood Gorgeous Dunbar table with a four-panel bookmatched olive burl wood top and a solid...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
MaterialsWalnut, Burl
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Expandable Game Table W/ Chairs, C. 1950sBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Westport, CTA rarely found games table executed in mahogany, designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, circa 1950-1950. Features an expandable mechanism that brings the table from 32" square to 62"...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
MaterialsChenille, Mahogany
- Elegant Game Low Dinning Table Designed by Wormley for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in San Diego, CAElegant low game table in walnut top with mahogany base and brass accents feet, circa 1950s in its original finish very clean for its age has a nice look.Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
MaterialsBrass
$1,000 Sale Price20% Off - Edward Wormley for Dunbar Walnut Flip Top Dining or Game Table, Newly RefinishedBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in South Bend, INAn exceptional Mid-Century Modern flip top game table or dining table By Edward Wormley for Dunbar USA, 1950s Walnut, with original brass hinges, leather wrapped feet, and velvet ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
MaterialsLeather, Walnut
$2,636 Sale Price20% Off - Edward J Wormley for Dunbar Green Leather Top Game TableBy Edward WormleyLocated in New York, NYAmerican mid-century game table with a wooden frame and a square inset green leather top, resting on four square wooden legs. (EDWARD J WORMLEY FOR DUNBAR...Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
MaterialsWood, Leather
- Octagonal Gaming Table by Edward WormleyBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Sagaponack, NYAn octagonal gaming or entry table with a leather wrapped cruciform base with brass levelers, and the solid walnut top having an inlaid rosewood Starbur...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Game Tables
MaterialsBrass