Modern Side 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 The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics.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.
1920s German Vintage Modern Side Tables
Marble
1920s Moroccan Vintage Modern Side Tables
Brass
1920s Dutch Vintage Modern Side Tables
Glass, Oak
Early 20th Century Moroccan Modern Side Tables
Wood
1920s Dutch Vintage Modern Side Tables
Belgian Black Marble
2010s Lebanese Modern Side Tables
Brass, Copper, Silver
Early 1900s English Antique Modern Side Tables
Oak
1930s French Vintage Modern Side Tables
Poplar
Mid-20th Century French Modern Side Tables
Bronze
Mid-20th Century French Modern Side Tables
Marble, Brass, Steel
Mid-20th Century American Modern Side Tables
Mahogany
Early 20th Century English Modern Side Tables
Metal
Early 1900s English Antique Modern Side Tables
Oak
1920s Dutch Vintage Modern Side Tables
Mahogany
1970s French Vintage Modern Side Tables
Chrome
1920s European Vintage Modern Side Tables
Wood
1920s French Vintage Modern Side Tables
Wood
1920s Danish Vintage Modern Side Tables
Oak
1920s Italian Vintage Modern Side Tables
Birdseye Maple, Walnut
1920s Italian Vintage Modern Side Tables
Bronze, Gold Leaf
1920s Italian Vintage Modern Side Tables
Bronze, Gold Leaf
1920s Moroccan Vintage Modern Side Tables
Brass
1920s Italian Vintage Modern Side Tables
Bronze, Gold Leaf
1920s Italian Vintage Modern Side Tables
Bronze
1920s Italian Vintage Modern Side Tables
Bronze, Gold Leaf
1920s Italian Vintage Modern Side Tables
Bronze
1920s Italian Vintage Modern Side Tables
Bronze