Floating Wall Console Demilune by Edward Wormley for Dunbar
View Similar Items
Floating Wall Console Demilune by Edward Wormley for Dunbar
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer),Dunbar Furniture (Manufacturer)
- Dimensions:Height: 2.5 in (6.35 cm)Width: 28.25 in (71.76 cm)Depth: 12.25 in (31.12 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1949
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Chicago, IL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU847421107902
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 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.
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 Long John Shelf for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILDesigned by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Long John Shelf can be used as shelf or console. Walnut wood with great sapwood striped details.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Shelves and Wall Cabinets
MaterialsWalnut
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar SofaBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley for Dunbar Sofa, early design with great scale, spring seating system, reupholstered and rebuilt reupholstered with wool ...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsUpholstery
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Slipper ChairsBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILEarly Edward Wormley for Dunbar slipper chairs. Lacquered mahogany legs with newly reupholstered button tufted seat and back. ...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMahogany
$9,009 / set - Edward Wormley for Dunbar Extension Coffee TableBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley for Dunbar, custom cocktail table, 3 positions with polished stone inside brass framed extension leaves. Solid crisscross oiled walnut frame and top. Width without ex...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Sofa Tables
MaterialsStone, Brass
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar "A" Frame Arm ChairBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley for Dunbar "A" Frame Arm Chair, Horseshoe curved back with original leather-covered armrests, solid mahogany frame, brass exposed screws...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsLeather, Mahogany
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Extension Dining TableBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley for Dunbar Extension Dining Table. One-inch thick top with edge banding and a slight upward reveal or lip design detail shown in pictures. The table is 48" round in di...Category
Vintage 1950s American Dining Room Tables
MaterialsBrass
- Wall Mounted Shelf by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Sagaponack, NYAn Edward Wormley designed shelf in solid walnut supported by two (2) laminated mahogany brackets in the original black lacquer finish. Manufactured by Dunbar in the 1960s. Shelf is ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Shelves and Wall Cabinets
MaterialsWalnut
$7,200 / item - Paul McCobb Wall-Mounted Floating ConsoleBy Paul McCobbLocated in Culver City, CAIntroducing an extraordinary mid-century wall-mounted floating three-tier console, a sought-after piece designed by the esteemed Paul McCobb for Bryce Originals in the 1950s. With it...Category
Vintage 1950s Mid-Century Modern Shelves and Wall Cabinets
MaterialsSteel, Cut Steel
- Floating Wall Hung Console with Storage by Nico YektaiBy Nico YektaiLocated in Sag Harbor, NYThis series lends itself to endless variations. This version explores a smaller size with a sculptural combination of two doors and three drawers. Like always, the drawers do not do ...Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Shelves and Wall Cabinets
MaterialsWalnut
- Plump Resin Floating Wall Console, Ian Cochran, Represented by Tuleste FactoryBy Ian CochranLocated in New York, NYThis resin console by Ian Cochran is mounted into the wall to give the piece an overall floating effect. A continuation of the Plump series of sculptural furniture. The shapes play u...Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Console Tables
MaterialsResin
- Wall Mounted Console by Osvaldo Borsani for ABVBy Osvaldo BorsaniLocated in New York, NYWall mounted console by Osvaldo Borsani for ABV Italy, c. 1948 Bleached maple, mirrored glass, brass. Fantastic undulating console with 2 drawe...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Shelves and Wall Cabinets
MaterialsGlass, Maple
- Vintage Demilune Stainless Steel Wall Consoles or Shelves with LightsBy Curtis JeréLocated in North Miami, FLThese are a fabulous pair of vintage polished stainless steel demi lune wall consoles or wall shelves have under light. They are in the style of Curtis Jere. They can be used as side tables on a wall on either side of a sofa or combined with two chairs. Also perfect for the display of art and sculpture. Great for an entrance or foyer. So many possibilities for these ultra chic demi lune consoles. These are from the 70's and will only be sold as an amazing pair of wall consoles...Category
Vintage 1970s American Modern Console Tables
MaterialsStainless Steel