Johnson Furniture Company More Furniture and Collectibles

Everyone loves Paul Frankl furniture. A pillar of design, he created some of the most iconic mid century pieces of furniture. And here we have a lovely pair of Paul Frankl Farrow and...

Pair of elegant bedside tables in pale gray with a hint of blue lacquer with polished brass X pulls by Paul Frankl for Johnson Furniture, American 1950's (signed “Johnson Furniture c...

Pair of his classic night stands designed by Paul Frankl for Johnson Furniture. Debonair Collection, circa 1940. Each chest features a pull down f...

Pair of Mid-Century Modern night stands, bedside tables by John Stuart, ebony, fully refinished. John Stuart Paul Frankl Designed Pair of Bedside Stands in the finest black lacque...

This rare collectors set of nightstands are by Paul T. Frankl for Johnson Furniture, circa 1945, and from the 'Station Wagon' series of bedroom furniture. Beautifully contrasting Mahogany and Maple refinished with an expensive French Polish; for the best of both worlds the leather and brass handles were kept original with decades of beautiful age and patina. Signed with Johnson Furniture Co stamp on inside drawers. The large size of these nightstands allow them to be used as end tables to a sofa or sectional, or side tables to large club chairs or lounge chairs, as a chest of drawers under a dining table so the table can be used as a desk, or as a pair of stand-alone commodes. *Note, we have the matching dresser available in another listing, photos of the dresser with these nightstands at the end of the photo gallery in this listing. This design is important in context to Mid-Century Modern and California Ranch House history. In 1950 House Beautiful magazine promoted the Frankl Station Wagon collection within their 'The Station Wagon Way of Life' feature as a concept of American Modernity bolstered by the American Station Wagon and American Ranch House style, using a photo of a Cliff May...

This pair of nightstands designed by Paul Frankl for Johnson Furniture Co. has his classic X-shaped pulls and have been newly restored with an ebonized finish. One has a deep upper d...

"Pair of antique Johnson Furniture Company twin size bed frames. Made of walnut featuring French Neoclassical styling with carved fluted and twisted accents with carved floral, ribbon and shell motifs. Johnson Furniture Co. 1908 - 1983, Grand Rapids, Michigan Successor to Cabinetmakers Co.; Predecessor to RoseJohnson, Inc. PERSONNEL Johnson Furniture was founded by three brothers who emigrated from Sweden in 1887: Carl (who had received a medal for his cabinetmaking skills from the King of Sweden), Hjalmar, and Axel. Tom Handley, who got his start at the prestigious firm of Waring and Gillow in London, became their in-house designer in 1908 and joined them as an officer in 1922. He continued to hold both positions until his untimely death in 1926. Handley established Johnson and Johnson-Handley-Johnson as major producers of high-quality, period revival, residential furniture. The nature of Handley’s designs required the skills of hand craftsmen like Bohemian-born carver Joseph Heyda, and Austrian-born Frank Davidhazy, Sr., who created the floral, figural and classical designs that were painted on the surfaces of some case pieces. David Robertson Smith, designer of Stickley Brothers Arts and Crafts lines, led Johnson into the production of Art Deco and Modern lines in 1928. The company later claimed that this was the first complete line of “modern” furniture produced in the United States. Lorenzo (Renzo) Rutili served as head of design from 1933 into the 1960s. He personally designed groups in the Modern and Neoclassical repertoires, and oversaw the contracted design of lines by a “Who’s Who” of famous Modern designers, including Paul Frankl, Eliel Saarinen, and J.Robert F. Swanson and Pipsam Swanson. When Earl Johnson retired and the family sold the company in 1963, it was purchased by a group of investors led by James Van Oosten. Milo Baugham and Kipp Stewart designed lines of residential furniture, which Johnson produced for Directional Industries between 1963 and 1968. After being owned by Holiday Inns, Inc. between 1968 and 1975, the company returned to the ownership of Van Oosten and company. PRODUCTS Generally speaking, Johnson produced wood residential furniture for the bedroom, while the Johnson-Handley-Johnson label was used to dining suites, occasional tables, and case pieces for the hall and library. Pieces produced between 1908 and about 1920 were designed in period revival styles, especially Sheraton, Hepplewhite, and Empire, and in a combination of European and American Revivals including Colonial, William and Mary, Jacobean, Queen Anne, French Provincial, Chinese Chippendale, and painted Italian or Venetian, from circa 1920 to 1935. Most notable are pieces designed by Tom Handley, which feature intricate marquetry designs and elaborate carving. Some of his most unusual designs are adaptation of classical Egyptian furniture, introduced in the early 1920s to capitalize upon popular fascination with contemporary archeological discoveries. The 1928 introduction of the Art Deco “Dynamique” line by D. Robertson Smith, with its exotic wood veneers and forms reminiscent of Frankl’s “skyscraper” bookcases, began a long period in which the company concurrently produced both modern and revival lines. Renzo Rutili selected traditional master works from museum collections across the country for reproduction in the 1938 American Museum Group. A sharp contrast to these reproductions came only a year later, when Johnson introduced a modular system for the home known as “Flexible Home Arrangement...

Pair of custom finished nightstands featuring bleached birds eye maple with a pearl grey stain sitting on mahogany stands. Nightstands have 2 drawers with original hardware in a brus...

An exceptional pair of mid-century modern black lacquered nightstands By Paul Frankl for Johnson Furniture and retailed by John Stuart USA, 1950s Black lacquered mahogany, w...

There can be no argument Paul Frankl created some of the most iconic mid century modern pieces of furniture. This pair of Frankl ivory colored nightstands...

Pair of bedside tables in dark walnut with gently curved fronts, 2 drawers, and brass buckle pulls by Paul Frankl for Johnson Furniture, American 1950's (signed). These have been newly refinished and the pulls have been cleaned and polished. A classic pair of Paul Frankl bedside tables.

Pair of pristine off-white lacquered and brass end or bedside tables designed by Paul Frankl for Johnson Furniture's Debonair collection, circa 1940. Each occasional table or small c...