Early Edward Wormley Dunbar Blonde Triangle Top Side Table
View Similar Items
Early Edward Wormley Dunbar Blonde Triangle Top Side Table
About the Item
- Creator:Edward Wormley (Designer),Dunbar Furniture (Maker)
- Dimensions:Height: 19.25 in (48.9 cm)Width: 18 in (45.72 cm)Depth: 16 in (40.64 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:Mahogany,Bleached
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:Nicely refinished.
- Seller Location:Ferndale, MI
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU848210205911
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.
- Arthur Umanoff Wrought Iron with Blonde Wood Modernist Magazine Stand Side TableBy Raymor, Arthur UmanoffLocated in Ferndale, MIArthur Umanoff designed Mid-Century Modernist magazine display side table. Wrought iron frame in black finish supports organic form blonde wood legs a...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsWrought Iron
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Bermuda Bench as Found ConditionBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Ferndale, MIEdward Wormley design for Dunbar furniture of Berne Indiana. Elegant design rectangular bench on tall taper legs with high sides. I am offering the bench in solid and stable as found...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
MaterialsWood
- Thick Paul Evans Cityscape for Directional Patchwork Burl Wood Top Side TableBy Paul EvansLocated in Ferndale, MIPaul Evans designed side or lamp table. Designed for the Directional City Scape series. Tabletop is a patchwork of Burl wood. Cruciform base is a patchwork of brushed stainless stee...Category
Mid-20th Century American Post-Modern Side Tables
MaterialsBrass, Stainless Steel
- Chest of Drawers on Hairpin Legs by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Ferndale, MIChest of drawers on hairpin legs by Edward Wormley for Dunbar. Scarce Wormley Design. Measures: 45" wide also available.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Commodes and Chests of Drawers
MaterialsBirch, Walnut
$5,000 Sale Price26% Off - Edward Wormley for Dunbar Six-Drawer DresserBy Edward WormleyLocated in Ferndale, MIEdward Wormley for Dunbar Six Drawer Dresser . Nicely configured shallow to deep graduated drawers .Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
MaterialsWalnut, Wood
$2,800 Sale Price49% Off - Donald Deskey Style Art Deco Machine Age Side TableBy Donald DeskeyLocated in Ferndale, MIFlat band steel with cylinder tell bases support solid maple top. Top has been restored base is in original patina finish.Category
Vintage 1930s American Art Deco Side Tables
MaterialsSteel
$2,300 Sale Price34% Off
- Edward Wormley Side Table for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Chicago, ILEdward Wormley side table for Dunbar. The scarcer form with two-tier tabletop.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsWood
- Dunbar Janus Side Table by Edward WormleyBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Dallas, TXStunning tripod side table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar from the Famous 'Janus' Collection. Stunning exotic wood top and solid brass feet. Original condition. Retains brass rectangul...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Square Top Triangle Grain Wooden End / Side TableBy Edward WormleyLocated in New York, NYAmerican Mid-Century wooden end / side table with a square top comprised of triangular panels that create a triangular grain pattern, resting on four square legs that curve slightly ...Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsWood
- Early Edward Wormley for Dunbar Step End TableBy Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Los Angeles, CAThree-tiered step up side table designed by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, circa 1950. This table is in wonderful condition and can be used as an end ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern End Tables
MaterialsWalnut
- Edward Wormley for Dunbar Side Table Model # 5425By Dunbar Furniture, Edward WormleyLocated in Brooklyn, NYOccasional table by Edward Wormley for Dunbar, model 5425. Rosewood and Walnut folding x-base with removable mahogany tray top. Labeled with Dunbar gold metal tagCategory
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsRosewood, Mahogany
- Walnut Side Table by Edward Wormley for DunbarBy Edward Wormley, Dunbar FurnitureLocated in Sagaponack, NYA Mid-Century Modern round-topped side table in figured oiled walnut having sculpted and tapered legs and an organic shaped lower stretcher. Designed by Edward Wormley, manufactured ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern End Tables
MaterialsWalnut