New building techniques, such as “post-and-beam” construction, allowed the International-style schemes to be realized on a small scale in open-plan houses with long walls of glass. The lean, functionalist International-style architecture of Le Corbusier and Bauhaus eminences Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the 1930s by Philip Johnson and others. The mid-century modern era saw leagues of postwar American architects and designers animated by new ideas and new technology. VINTAGE MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS ICONIC MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNS Danish modernists Hans Wegner and Arne Jacobsen, whose emphasis on natural materials and craftsmanship influenced American designers and vice versa.MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW Glass walls and an emphasis on the outdoors.Light-filled spaces with colorful upholstery.Use of natural and man-made materials - alluring woods such as teak, rosewood and oak steel, fiberglass and molded plywood.A blend of neutral and bold Pop art colors.Experimentation with new ideas, new materials and new forms flourished in Scandinavia, Italy, the former Czechoslovakia and elsewhere in EuropeĬHARACTERISTICS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN.A heyday of innovation in postwar America.Informed by European modernism, Bauhaus, International style, Scandinavian modernism and Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture.ORIGINS OF MID-CENTURY MODERN FURNITURE DESIGN The style, which emerged primarily in the years following World War II, is characterized by pieces that were conceived and made in an energetic, optimistic spirit by creators who believed that good design was an essential part of good living. Organically shaped, clean-lined and elegantly simple are three terms that well describe vintage mid-century modern furniture. A Close Look at Mid-Century Modern Furniture The truly sturdy pieces have weathered the intervening years well, having found a new audience for their blithe and happy sophistication.įind a collection of vintage Heywood-Wakefield desks, chairs, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs. The buoyantly bright, blond wood - maple initially, later birch - came in finishes such as amber “wheat” and pink-tinted “champagne.” The forms of the pieces, at once light and substantial, with softly contoured edges and little adornment beyond artful drawer pulls and knobs, were featured in lines with names such as “Sculptura,” “Crescendo” and “Coronet.” It was forward-looking, optimistic and built to last - a draw for middle-class buyers in the Baby Boom years.īy the 1960s, Heywood-Wakefield began to be seen as “your parents’ furniture.” The last of the Modern line came out in 1966 the company went bankrupt in 1981. In 1936, the company introduced its “Streamline Modern” group of furnishings, presenting a look that would define the company’s wares for another 30 years. Joseph Carr, Leo Jiranek and Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky, a Russian nobleman who had made his name in Europe creating elegant automotive body designs. Before departing in 1932 to lead the Michigan furniture maker Herman Miller, Rohde created well-received sleek, bentwood chairs for Heywood-Wakefield and gave its colonial pieces a touch of Art Deco flair.Ĭommitted to the new style, Heywood-Wakefield commissioned work from an assortment of like-minded designers, including Alfons Bach, W. In 1930, the company brought in designer Gilbert Rohde, a champion of the Art Deco style. The conglomerate initially did well with both early American style and woven pieces, but taste began to change at the turn of the 20th century and wicker furniture fell out of fashion. ![]() In 1897, they joined forces with a local rival, the Wakefield Rattan Company, whose founder, Cyrus Wakefield, got his start on the Boston docks buying up lots of discarded rattan, which was used as cushioning material in the holds of cargo ships, and transforming it into furnishings. As their company grew, they moved into the manufacture of furniture with steam-bent wood frames and cane or wicker seats, backs and sides. The Heywoods were five brothers from Gardner, Massachusetts, who in 1826 started a business making wooden chairs and tables in their family shed. ![]() In the midst of the Great Depression, however, Heywood-Wakefield reinvented itself, creating instead the first modernist furnishings to be widely embraced in American households. In its early decades, the firm thrived by crafting affordable and hugely popular wicker pieces in traditional and historical styles. Created by the 19th-century merger of two venerable Massachusetts furniture makers, Heywood-Wakefield was one of the largest and most successful companies of its kind in the United States.
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