Postmodern design was a short-lived movement that manifested itself chiefly in Italy and the United States in the early 1980s. The characteristics of vintage postmodern furniture and other postmodern objects and decor for the home included loud-patterned, usually plastic surfaces; strange proportions, vibrant colors and weird angles; and a vague-at-best relationship between form and function.
ORIGINS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
VINTAGE POSTMODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
Critics derided postmodern design as a grandstanding bid for attention and nothing of consequence. Decades later, the fact that postmodernism still has the power to provoke thoughts, along with other reactions, proves they were not entirely correct.
Postmodern design began as an architectural critique. Starting in the 1960s, a small cadre of mainly American architects began to argue that modernism, once high-minded and even noble in its goals, had become stale, stagnant and blandly corporate. Later, in Milan, a cohort of creators led by Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini — a onetime mentor to Sottsass and a key figure in the Italian Radical movement — brought the discussion to bear on design.
Sottsass, an industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, gathered a core group of young designers into a collective in 1980 they called Memphis. Members of the Memphis Group, which would come to include Martine Bedin, Michael Graves, Marco Zanini, Shiro Kuramata, Michele de Lucchi and Matteo Thun, saw design as a means of communication, and they wanted it to shout. That it did: The first Memphis collection appeared in 1981 in Milan and broke all the modernist taboos, embracing irony, kitsch, wild ornamentation and bad taste.
Memphis works remain icons of postmodernism: the Sottsass Casablanca bookcase, with its leopard-print plastic veneer; de Lucchi’s First chair, which has been described as having the look of an electronics component; Martine Bedin’s Super lamp: a pull-toy puppy on a power-cord leash. Even though it preceded the Memphis Group’s formal launch, Sottsass’s iconic Ultrafragola mirror — in its conspicuously curved plastic shell with radical pops of pink neon — proves striking in any space and embodies many of the collective’s postmodern ideals.
After the initial Memphis show caused an uproar, the postmodern movement within furniture and interior design quickly took off in America. (Memphis fell out of fashion when the Reagan era gave way to cool 1990’s minimalism.) The architect Robert Venturi had by then already begun a series of plywood chairs for Knoll Inc., with beefy, exaggerated silhouettes of traditional styles such as Queen Anne and Chippendale. In 1982, the new firm Swid Powell enlisted a group of top American architects, including Frank Gehry, Richard Meier, Stanley Tigerman and Venturi to create postmodern tableware in silver, ceramic and glass.
On 1stDibs, the vintage postmodern furniture collection includes chairs, coffee tables, sofas, decorative objects, table lamps and more.
$2,437 / item
Calligraphic Sculpted Brass Side Table by Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Calligraphic sculpted brass side table by Misaya Dimensions: W 27 x L 30 x H 57 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Misaya emulates Chinese ink paintings through the process of lost-wax c...
Brass
Contemporary White Plaster Arch Console by Pietro Franceschini
Located in Geneve, CH
White Arch Console by Pietro Franceschini --Sold exclusively by Galerie Philia-- Dimensions: W 103 x L 32 x H 86 cm. Materials: white plaster. **Made-to-order dimensions can be possi...
Aluminum
Sculptural Postmodern Side Table by Jonathan Christian, Wood & Marble, France
Located in Lille, FR
Sculptural Postmodern side table by Jonathan Christian.
Carrara Marble
Italian Postmodern Dark Green Marble Side Table
Located in New York, NY
An Italian Postmodern side drinks table with a grey gun-metal frame and dark green marble top, circa 1990s, Italy. A great table for drinks/cocktails in a convenient size. Very good condition as shown in images and video. All Dimensions: 21.75" Height to top of marble top. 23.5" Height to top of table frame. 14.5" Square frame Marble measures: 11.57" Square. Marble sphere ashtray box...
Marble, Metal
Model Guéridon PI Side Table by Martin Szekely for Neotu Edition, 1985
Located in Kelkheim (Taunus), HE
Postmodern "PI" Side Table by Martin Szekely for Neotu Edition, 1985. Bibliographie: Martin Szekely “meublier - designer” p. 42 Provenance: Hamburg (Germany) Private Collection.
Metal
Sculptural Postmodern Side Table by Jonathan Christian, Wood & Marble, France
Located in Lille, FR
Sculptural Postmodern side table by Jonathan Christian.
Carrara Marble
Calligraphic Sculpted Blackened/Antique/Polished Brass Side Table by Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Calligraphic sculpted brass side table by Misaya. Dimensions: W 52 x L 31 x H 41 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Misaya emulates Chinese ink paintings through the process of lost-...
Brass
Calligraphic Sculpted Side Table in Black-Painted Brass by Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Calligraphic Sculpted Side Table in Black-Painted Brass by Misaya Dimensions: W 27 x L 30 x H 57 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Misaya emulates Chinese ink paintings through the proc...
Brass
Pair of Tall ORG tables by Fabio Novembre for Cappellini
Located in Atlanta, GA
A pair of tall red ORG table designed by Fabio Novembre (Italian, born 1967) in 2001 for Cappellini. Made of glass top supported by polypropylene rope-covere...
Steel
Rosso Lepanto Refined Contemporary Marble Serving Plate
Located in Geneve, CH
Rosso Lepanto Refined Contemporary Marble Serving Plate Dimensions: Ø 32 x 2 cm H Ø 32 x 15 cm H Ø 24 x 22 cm H Angelo O is the little brother and scale model of the natural stone table Angelo M...
Marble
Pair of Calligraphic Sculpted Brass Side Tables by Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Pair of calligraphic sculpted brass side tables by Misaya. Dimensions: W 27 x L 30 x H 57 cm W 52 x L 31 x H 41 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Misaya emulates Chinese ink paint...
Brass
$9,195 / item
Unique Blue Marbled Salts Gueridon, Roxane Lahidji
Located in Geneve, CH
Unique blue marbled salts Gueridon, Roxane Lahidji Material: Marbled salts, a unique award winning technique developed by Roxane Lahidji Dimensions: 42 x 38 x 38 cm Unique Gueridon. Award winner of Bolia Design Awards 2019 and FD100 and present in the collections of the Design Museum Gent. Lahidji's marbled salts creations in the press: Elle Decoration NL : DDW17- Jan/Feb 2018 Object Rotterdam - Feb/March 2018 DeStandaard Magazine - June 2018 Elle Decoration UK- Sept. 2018 Boek Boq - Architecture - Oct. 2018 Why material matters - Oct. 2018 Roxane Lahidji Roxane Lahidji is an alchemist as much as a designer. She seeks a reconnection to fundamental materials in objects of our daily lives by developing her own transforming and moulding methods. In terms of design, her intuitive methodology associates concepts with material symbolics and consumption or usage habits, which defines a dwelling function and a final shaping. Fascinated by precious surfaces and their story telling, she works in a constant research for meaning in patterns, textures and shades; focusing on liquid and powdered substances she melts, mixes, fusions into solid objects. With the deep concern of reconciliating production and sustainability, her design focuses on disregarded or cheap materials brought to a new life, while twisting low tech methods and traditional crafts techniques. Roxane Lahidji was born in Paris in 1992 and grew up in the French capitale before studying illustration and product design in Strasbourg (HEAR). After her Bachelor (with distinction), she pursued her research for new design values...
Composition
$2,072 / item
Brass Side Table, Compound I, Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Brass side table - compound I by Misaya. Dimensions: 49 x 48 x 44 cm Hand-sculpted brass table.
Brass
Contemporary Silver Aluminum Arch Console by Pietro Franceschini
Located in Geneve, CH
Contemporary Silver Aluminum Arch Console by Pietro Franceschini. Sold exclusively by Galerie Philia Manufacturer: Prinzivalli Dimensions: W 103 x L 30 x H 86 cm Materials: Aluminum ...
Aluminum
Pair of Polished Brass Hourglass-Shaped Side Tables by Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Pair of brass gueridon table, Gordian Node, Misaya. Dimensions: W 40 x L 40 x H 50 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Available in other brass finishes
Brass
Pair of Calligraphic Sculpted Brass Side Tables by Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Pair of calligraphic sculpted brass side tables by Misaya Dimensions: W 27 x L 30 x H 57 cm W 52 x L 31 x H 41 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Misaya emulates Chinese ink painti...
Brass
Calligraphic Sculpted Side Table in Polished Brass by Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Calligraphic sculpted brass side table by Misaya Dimensions: W 52 x L 31 x H 41 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Misaya emulates Chinese ink paintings through the process of lost-wax c...
Brass
High Travertine Contemporary Guéridon, Sebastian Herkner
Located in Geneve, CH
High travertine contemporary guéridon, Sebastian Herkner Dimensions: D 42 x H 57 cm Materials: Travertine stone, copper The salute table exists in 3 sizes, 4 different marble st...
Travertine, Copper
Blackened Brass Hand-Sculpted Side Table with Polish Brass Tops by Misaya
By Masaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Blackened Brass Hand-Sculpted Side Table with Polish Brass Tops by Misaya Dimensions: H 50 x W 43 x L 50 cm. Available in different brass finishes Masaya is our brand's collection w...
Brass
$6,216 / set
Pair of Brass Side Tables, Hourglass, Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Pair of brass side tables, hourglass by Misaya Dimensions: H.49 x W.35 x L.35 cm Handsculpted brass and marble tables.
Brass
Exceptionnal Daté Kan Volcanic Stone Low Table, Kaaron and Okurayama Studio
By Kaaron, Okurayama Studio
Located in Geneve, CH
Low table " LAC" Daté Kan volcanic stone Limited Edition Drawing by Kaaron studio Collaboration with Okurayama Studio Dimensions : 45 (H) x 222 (W) x 73 (D) cm Daté Kan Stone is...
Stone
Blackened Brass Hand-Sculpted Side Table with Polish Brass Tops by Misaya
By Masaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Blackened Brass Hand-Sculpted Side Table with Polish Brass Tops by Misaya Dimensions: H 50 x W 43 x L 50 cm. Masaya is our brand's collection which combines stylishly refined designs...
Brass
$2,036 / item
Grafite Refined Contemporary Marble Serving Plate
Located in Geneve, CH
Grafite Refined Contemporary Marble Serving Plate Dimensions: ø 32 x 2 cm H ø 32 x 15 cm H ø 24 x 22 cm H Angelo O is the little brother and scale model of the natural stone table Angelo M...
Marble
Decomplexe, Dark Grey Marble Side Table Sculpted by Frederic Saulou
Located in Geneve, CH
Decomplexe, Marble Side Table Sculpted by Frederic Saulou Limited Edition Materials: Ruivina Marble Dimensions: H 50 x D 38 cm. "While wandering in the streets I have been observi...
Stone
$3,237 / item
Ebonised Oak Bar Stool Signed by Cal Summers
By Cal Summers
Located in Geneve, CH
Ebonized oak bar stool signed by Cal Summers Materials: Ebonized oak, blackened steel Steel insert with bronze finish Dimensions: 12 1/2”D x 12 1/2”W x 29”H Cal Summers is a Br...
Oak
Medium Travertine Contemporary Guéridon, Sebastian Herkner
Located in Geneve, CH
Medium travertine contemporary guéridon, Sebastian Herkner Dimensions: D 40 x H 46 cm Materials: Travertine stone, copper The salute table exists in 3 sizes, 4 different marble ...
Travertine, Copper
Three-dimensional Black Slate Gueridon with Grey Glass Plane by Frederic Saulou
Located in Geneve, CH
Black Slate Guéridon, Averti, Frederic Saulou Materials: Black slate, grey smoked glass. Dimensions: W 25 x D 18 x H 50 cm Edition of eight. Signed and nu...
Slate
Bianco Statuarietto Refined Contemporary Marble Serving Plate 32/15
Located in Geneve, CH
Bianco Statuarietto Refined Contemporary Marble Serving Plate 32/15 Dimensions: Ø 32 x 2 cm H Ø 32 x 15 cm H Ø 24 x 22 cm H Angelo O is the little brother and scale model of the natural stone table Angelo M...
Marble
Art Deco Rustic Wood Gueridon Side Table
Located in New York, NY
A small rustic round wood and glass side or drinks table, in the Art Deco style, circa late-20th century. This side or drinks table has all the hallmarks of Art Deco design including...
Glass, Wood
Mid-Century Modern Spanish Green Onyx Gueridon / Side Table, 1950s
Located in Barcelona, ES
Outstanding Mid-Century Modern Onyx Stone Gueridon Table Spain, 1950s Eye-catching onyx side table with column pedestal round base holding a round top. It has an amazing color in gre...
Stone, Onyx
ZEL ITRI — Brass Side Table with Hand-Cut Zellige Mosaic
Located in Paris, FR
Hand-cut zellige tiles are set into a polished brass rim and paired with our ITRI bell base. The surface reads like jewelry—faceted glaze, subtle grout lines, a soft metallic halo. E...
Brass
French Art Deco Alabaster Gueridon Table / Side Table
Located in Barcelona, ES
Outstanding Alabaster Gueridon Table France, 1930-1940 Gueridon Side Table / Drinks Table in Turned Alabaster. Manufactured at the Art Deco Period. Rare find. Amazing color! Elegant ...
Alabaster
$24,000 / set
H 37.75 in W 27.5 in D 11 in
French Maison Jansen Pair of Feather Consoles, Plaster and Wood Base, Marble Top
Located in Montreal, Quebec
Rare pair of French wall-mounted console table tables with feather-form wood and plaster gilt bases and red marble tops. The 3-feather shape is a tribute to the Prince of Wales's her...
Marble
$2,295
H 26.78 in W 14.57 in D 12.21 in
Spanish Drinks Table Gueridon / End or Side Table in Black Iron
Located in Barcelona, ES
Martini Table // Gueridon // Side Table // End Table // Drink Table // Floor Ashtray Elegant hand-hammered iron drinks end table /floor ashtray standing on tripod base. Spain, 1950...
Iron, Wrought Iron
Sculptural Brutalist Marble Side Table by Jonathan Christian, France.
Located in Lille, FR
Sculptural Brutalist marble side table by Jonathan Christian.
Marble, Metal
Mahogany Faux Bamboo Galleried Leather Top Gueridon Side Table
Located in Germantown, MD
Beautiful faux bamboo mahogany gueridon Bouillotte style with leather top with brass pierced gallery. Very good condition. Measures 18.25" in diameter and stands 28" tall. W605...
Metal
French Art Deco Macassar Ebony Console Table
Located in North Bergen, NJ
Stunning French Art Deco Macassar ebony accent table / Console table. Perfect for any room in your home and adds a nice touch of decor.
Macassar
French Louis XVI Style Mahogany Bronze Gueridon Side Table
By Adam Weisweiler
Located in Shippensburg, PA
FRENCH LOUIS XVI STYLE GILT-BRONZE, POLISHED BRASS AND MAHOGANY GUERIDON Modeled after the design by Adam Weisweiler 20th century Item # 407UNK10P This gorgeous 20th century interp...
Brass, Bronze
$4,850
H 30.5 in Dm 20.5 in
Fine French Louis XVI Style Gilt Wood Carved Guéridon Side Table with Marble Top
Located in Los Angeles, CA
A French Louis XVI Style Gilt Wood Carved Guéridon Side Table with Marble Top. The circular gilt wood carved apron with an acanthus tied leaf wreath, raised on four fluted carved leg...
Marble
Taz-M Contemporary Brass Marble Side Table by Jonathan Amar
Located in Paris, FR
A customizable guéridon side table designed with a marble tabletop and a marble base. Different heights and dimensions allow for various nesting layout possibilities. Finishes: Pol...
Marble, Brass
Pucci De Rossi Post-Modern Table with Natural Stone Top
Located in North Miami, FL
This outstanding Foyer/ Gueridon/ Dining Table by Italian artist, Pucci De Rossi (b. 1947-2013) features an organic shaped polished stone top likely onyx. Extremely sculptural base ...
Stone, Aluminum
Murano Stacked Glass Block Gueridon Demilune Console Table
Located in W Allenhurst, NJ
Stacked Glass Gueridon Ice Block Demilune Console Table. Frosted fused glass block base with frosted rim demilune glass top with a striking presence.
Glass
Irakli Zaria ceramic centre table, Russia/UK
Located in London, GB
An artistically crafted custom ceramic centre table designed by Irakli Zaria for a West London interior. With a round top raised on a fluted column, on a plinth base, it imparts a cl...
Ceramic
Andrea Branzi Polinius flower stand for Zabro - Italy, 1986
By Andrea Branzi, Zabro
Located in London, GB
Italian architect and designer Andrea Branzi (1938–2023) was interested in how the practice of design could be disconnected from the methods of mass production that were gaining trac...
Lacquer
Irakli Zaria ceramic centre table, Russia/UK
Located in London, GB
An artistically crafted custom ceramic centre table designed by Irakli Zaria for a West London interior. With a round top raised on a fluted column, on a ...
Ceramic
Sold
H 19.69 in Dm 15.75 in
Brutalist Postmodern Side Table by Jonathan Christian, Wood & Marble, France
Located in Lille, FR
Sculptural Postmodern side table by Jonathan Christian.
Carrara Marble
Calligraphic Sculpted Brass Side Table by Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Calligraphic sculpted brass side table by Misaya Dimensions: W 27 x L 30 x H 57 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Misaya emulates Chinese ink paintings through the process of lost-w...
Brass
Calligraphic Sculpted Brass Side Table by Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Calligraphic sculpted brass side table by Misaya Dimensions: W 27 x L 30 x H 57 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Misaya emulates Chinese ink paintings through the process of lost-w...
Brass
Natural Rounded Totem by Daniel Orozco
Located in Geneve, CH
Natural Rounded totem by Daniel Orozco Material: Solid wood. Dimensions: D 35 x H 45 cm Rounded solid wood Totem with hole in between, natural finish. Handmade by Mexican artisans. ...
Wood
Sold
H 30.32 in W 17.72 in D 17.72 in
Pair of Italian Colored Glass Sellette or Night Stand 1980s Memphis
By Glas Italia
Located in Saint Ouen, FR
Pair of consoles or bedside tables in colored glass. Graphics and primary colors, symbols of Memphis design are at work in these two Italian side tables from the 1980s. Very good or...
Glass
Tall ORG tables by Fabio Novembre for Cappellini
Located in Atlanta, GA
A tall red ORG table designed by Fabio Novembre (Italian, born 1967) in 2001 for Cappellini. Made of glass top supported by polypropylene rope-covered steel ...
Steel
Calligraphic Sculpted Brass Side Table by Misaya
By Misaya
Located in Geneve, CH
Calligraphic Sculpted brass side table by Misaya Dimensions: W 52 x L 31 x H 41 cm Hand-sculpted brass table. Misaya emulates Chinese ink paintings through the process of lost-w...
Brass