Modern Industrial and Work Tables
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.
21st Century and Contemporary Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Lucite, Lacquer
1950s Finnish Vintage Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Elm
1970s French Vintage Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Brass
2010s German Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Metal, Aluminum
1890s Japanese Antique Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Metal
1930s American Vintage Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Chrome
Late 19th Century French Antique Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Bronze
Early 2000s Vietnamese Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Oak
Mid-20th Century Italian Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Brass, Chrome
1910s American Vintage Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Vitrolite
1980s English Vintage Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Marble, Steel
2010s British Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Stainless Steel
2010s Austrian Modern Industrial and Work Tables
Brass