Frank Lloyd Wright Cassina Midway Steel Dining Set for 6 1914 / 1986 Red & Gray

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Frank Lloyd Wright Cassina Midway Steel Dining Set for 6 1914 / 1986 Red & Gray

About the Item

Wright designed midway chair 1 (wood) and midway chair 2 (steel) in 1914 for the indoor and outdoor spaces of midway, respectively. (The original FLW sketch for midway 2 is included as Image 10). Unfortunately, the project ran out of funds by the time it came to furniture production and so FLW's designs were not realized at the time. In 1986, the FLW Foundation and Cassina worked together to produce the midway 2 chair in a limited edition. Enameled steel rod, available in either white, orange-red, dark grey (available here) and blue. It was available without or without the gadded back and featured simple cream white fabric upholstery. The matching tables were sold with round or square crystal glass tops. Each numbered and stamped by manufacturer and FLW foundation. Here we have a set of six midway 2 Chairs, in charcoal grey, original finish and fabric (5 cream, two red), signed and numbered, some chairs with original tags (!), as well as two Midway 3 bases, gray, also signed and numbered. Extremely rare to come across a double set (for 6). Original square and round 1/2 glass (pictured in image 3) tops, excellent condition, included upon request. Table base dimensions (each) Height 26.5 inches, width 20.5 inches More info about Midway Gardens: Location: Chicago Built: 1914 Demolished: 1929 A true renaissance architect, Wright designed buildings of all shapes and sizes during his long career: homes, hotels, office buildings, museums, schools, churches, chapels and synagogues, and even a doghouse. In 1913-1914, he was commissioned by his friend Edward C. Wallar to design a German-style beer hall and entertainment center known as Midway Gardens in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. Midway Gardens and the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo were FLW's largest commissions up to that point (1913-1914) and were designed in this particularly fruitful 24 month period. Opened to a huge amount of fanfare on the site of the former Sans Souci amusement park with a performance from the National Symphony Orchestra, Midway Gardens was an upscale, indoor-outdoor complex built in the popular-at-the-time Prairie School style. It served as a venue for concerts, dance performances, fine dining and, of course, heavy drinking. Midway was a complicated structure - or series of structures, indoor and outdoor spaces, that is difficult to summarize. I would suggest Paul Kurty’s “Frank Lloyd Wright and Midway Gardens” in 1998, as an essential resource for understanding this elaborate work of art. There are also great video resources online that help bring Midway to life (Unfortunately I cannot link to those videos here). Midway was comprised of a music pavilion and stage, arcades on either side of the terraced summer gardens, an indoor lobby, club, tavern, two belvederes, promenades, cigar concession stands, two sunken gardens and pools, dance floors, cantilevered balconies, terraces, gardens, and courtyards. Not only did Wright design the building itself, but he also oversaw the creation of the furniture, interior fixtures, artwork, and even the dishes and napkin holders. Wright also co-designed a series of concrete sculptures named “sprites” with Italian-born sculptor Alfonso Ianelli (a collaboration that, true to Wright style, ended in a squabble over artistic ownership). In keeping with Wright's style, the building also featured rows of art glass and hidden entries. In his 1932 autobiography, FLW states that "in the Midway Gardens, painting and sculpture recovered their original position in architecture." In 1916, Midway Gardens changed hands and became Edelweiss Gardens. Under new ownership, the complex was less highbrow with a new emphasis placed on vaudeville and cabaret acts. After (barely) surviving Prohibition, the former Midway Gardens changed hands yet again in 1921 and was renamed Midway Dancing Gardens by its new owner, E. C. Dietrich Midway Automobile Tire and Supply Company. Finally, after 15 years of financial struggle, Midway Gardens was razed and bulldozed into Lake Michigan as a breakwater. It’s rumored that the building was so solidly constructed from bricks and concrete blocks that the demolition sent two wrecking companies out of business and a third into bankruptcy.

Creator:
Cassina (Maker),Frank Lloyd Wright (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 34.65 in (88.02 cm)Width: 16 in (40.64 cm)Depth: 18.12 in (46.03 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 8
Style:
Mission (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Stainless Steel
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
Mid-20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1986
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses. Minor fading. Fair vintage condition. Retains original finish, fabric & glass. Textile shows age appropriate wear. We are leaving it up to their new owner(s) to decide whether or if to recover/ repair aged textile.
Seller Location:
Brooklyn, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU4190315647852

Shop All Frank Lloyd Wright

Frank Lloyd Wright

Without question the greatest architect the United States has ever produced, Frank Lloyd Wright and his philosophy of “organic architecture” — of buildings that exist in harmony with their natural surroundings — had a profound influence on the shape of modern life. Wright gave us some of the most elegant and iconic buildings in America: residences such as Fallingwater, in rural Pennsylvania, the Robie House in Chicago, and Taliesin, Wright’s own home; and masterful institutional structures that include the Unity Temple in Oak Park, Illinois, the Johnson Wax headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Whenever possible, Wright designed the furniture for his projects, to ensure an affinity between a building’s exterior and interior.

Wright’s wooden chairs and tables for his “Prairie Houses” of the early 1900s have sleek, attenuated forms, influenced by both the simplicity of traditional Japanese design and the work of Gustav Stickley and other designers of the Arts and Crafts movement. For Taliesin and several residential projects, Wright designed severely geometric chairs that are marvels of reductivist design. He revisited many of these forms in the 1950s in furniture licensed to the firm Henredon, adding a decorative frieze-like element to the edges of tables and stools.

The works on 1stDibs also show how happily Wright embraced new forms and materials. His desks and chairs for Johnson Wax have a streamlined look and use tubular steel to the same effect as designer Warren McArthur, who collaborated with Wright in the interiors of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. For the Price Tower (1956) in Oklahoma, Wright designed angular wooden desks as well as upholstered pedestal chairs made of chromed steel — audacious furniture for his tallest completed building project.

The beauty of Frank Lloyd Wright’s furniture designs is that while many of us wish we could live in one of his houses, his vintage sofas, storage cabinets and armchairs connect us directly to his architecture, and to the history he made.

Shop All Cassina

Cassina

Furniture manufacturer Cassina is a prolific design house for more reasons than one: It not only owns the licenses to an exquisite collection of iconic chairs, sofas, tables and other pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries but also produces original works that are characterized by innovation and the finest Italian craftsmanship.

Cassina’s illustrious legacy includes being one of the first companies to bring industrial design to Italy in the 1950s. Founded in 1927 in Meda, Italy, by brothers Cesare and Umberto Cassina, the Italian manufacturing giant originally specialized in bespoke woodworking. In nearly a century since its founding, the company has shown incredible foresight about design trends and the evolution of technology.

In 1964, Cassina signed an exclusive licensing agreement to manufacture furniture by Le Corbusier and his collaborators — such as the LC4 chaise longue made with trailblazing French modernist Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret — a move that would shape the future of the company. Cassina’s I Maestri collection is an ongoing initiative to restyle landmark designs from the 20th century, such as pieces by Gerrit Rietveld (the Red and Blue armchair from 1918), Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Erik Gunnar Asplund, Franco Albini and Frank Lloyd Wright. The company preserves the intentions and original styles of their designs but adds updated techniques, materials and processes — rendering them the best possible combination of past, present and future. The brand has also worked with contemporary icons like Zaha Hadid, Gio Ponti and Philippe Starck.

Cassina’s original designs are cutting-edge as well. They include pieces for everyday use, the development of which is guided by comfort and the marriage of Italian craftsmanship with industrial technology.

Some of Cassina’s pieces, both from its contemporary and I Maestri collections, can be found in the collections of museums like the Museum of Modern Art and the Vitra Design Museum. In 2014, the company became part of Haworth in its acquisition of Italian furniture group Poltrona Frau, and in 2015, Spanish designer Patricia Urquiola joined Cassina as its art director, leading the brand into its next century of inventive style.

Find a collection of new and vintage Cassina furniture on 1stDibs.