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I have questions about furniture. I imagine others might, too.
Hopefully there are some folks around here with answers.
I'll start, but others should feel free to add.
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I think I want a minimalist-ish recliner for a spot in our living room. I've spotted various renditions of this basic idea:
https://d3o372dlsg9lxo.cloudfront.ne..._096_D3376.jpg
https://d3o372dlsg9lxo.cloudfront.ne..._BASE_4733.jpg
Does this design have a name and history behind it?
I am no expert, but an ahem armchair enjoyer of furniture.
I would call that chair "contemporary" which I believe is an actual design movement. My wife just says, no, that's more midcentury modern. I love the functionality and elegance of it. I think it might count as contempoary. :) They are similar anyway. A well done Atomic ranch style house might have some contemporary style, and there are also what are called "contemporary" houses, which I like, too. Modernism that's not brutalism, atmo. Function and form pretty close to each other in my opinion, which is a nice thing. I like old farmhouses, French renaissance, furniture, and state-fair quilts, too. But yeah, contemporary design is so nice. We have a Danish modern bed that jives with it, a credenza/record player stand, a sofa, and a handful of other stuff. In fact, I'm typing this at my desk, which I would say is as "contemporary" as anything else we own. Maybe I'll snap a pic.
Eh, I can't upload photos from my mobile right now, but yeah, furniture is fun! Our chairs we actually bought at an estate sale, had a horrible fabric print on them, got them reupholstered in leather, saved hundreds off what new leather chairs would cost. Almost all our modern stuff is hand-me-down or acquired at thrift stores. You can find stuff cheap if you know where to look.
I would say the chair that started it all is the Eames... now made by Herman Miller. They are the scions of that design movement. Lots of nice spin-offs.
If i had the money, though, we would have a lot of original art deco, craftsman, and campaign style type stuff. It's all good.
@zambenini listen to your wife, that chair is mid-century.
I like it.
There’s a custom furniture maker on YouTube - ‘Four Eyes’ I believe - making some really nice pieces. They’re loosely based on a the mid-century modern theme. His focus is more techniques of building furniture but he does go into some history of his ideas. Nonetheless, it’s interesting to watch.
This shop in Connecticut specializes in mid-century furniture.
She is smart. What's contemporary then? And, she says, the rest of our stuff is mid-century.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ras72
So a lot of these terms are used fluidly to describe any number of things. BUTQuote:
Originally Posted by zambenini
Mid-century refers to a period of design that occurred roughly from the 50's to the 60's. Some famous Mid-century designers are Charles and Ray Eames, Eero Saarinen, Florence Knoll, Russel Wright, etc. Many of those designs are still produced by furniture manufacturers like Knoll, Herman Miller, Vitra, and DWR as fully licensed authentic versions of the earlier original design. They are using the same materials, patterns, process and often, the same factories, that produced the designs originally, though some times finish options are expanded.
Mid-century style furniture is furniture that is styled to refer to Mid-century designs but is not necessarily designed by a designer, but rather produced by a company who is using the language of Mid-century design to create a line of furniture that will sell to their target demographic. Because many of these designs are protected by copyright, Mid-century style furniture either has to use those designs as a leaping off point for a new design (DWR does some of this) of equal quality and similar original designer involvement, or they create furniture that references but does not copy Mid-century designs exactly (though some copyrighted designs from the Mid-century era have lost strict control of their design - see: Eames shell chair.)
The word "Contemporary" is a catch-all phrase used to describe objects - not just furniture - the design of which is so far down the path of references to earlier designs that it has sort of lost contact with the original object. In terms of furniture, contemporary is often applied to furniture that presents a blend of Mid-century, Danish Modern and American vernacular (Shaker, Arts & Craft, Mission) styles as a single piece.
Upper end contemporary furniture is usually designed to be of current style and in fashion without challenging the buyer too much or looking too different from what is probably already in the house. They are blended styles as above, so even if your house is furnished in Colonial reproductions, a contemporary recliner should be able to fit in well enough that it isn't awkward. Newer style with the sharp edges taken off, some aspects of a corporate furniture designs to keep it inoffensive, but also a bit cleaner and trimmer than a Barcalounger to appeal for the target demographic and encourage future purchases. Collect them all!
Looking at this recliner, I can see some Shaker Ladder-backed chair references - don't want to get too hedonistic, after all work is honest and makes us strong:
https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/20...2364_ss_23.jpg
Some Hans Wegner Danish Modern - love that wood, so much better than Ikea wood:
https://cdn20.pamono.com/p/g/2/2/223...ma-1950s-1.jpg
Or perhaps Carlo Mollino's Piuma tilting lounge, designed for Canali in Italy, 1960's, this one an original from that time period:
https://ehrlantik.com/asset/img/obje...1579440278.jpg
The big thing with contemporary production furniture, even the better quality examples, is that retailers often pull from the same producers, just like carbon bike frames. So if you are a retailer who is creating a home brand, you can do everything from just buying out of a cookie-cutter wholesale catalog of designs to creating minor modifications to make the item yours to paying for a copyrighted design from an actual designer to having an independent designer create furniture pieces for you that are then translated by a producer into a mass producible product.
DWR offers a similar recliner, but their recliner has an actual designer's name and face attached to it. The designer is Milo Baughman, the chair produced by Thayer Coggin, and built in High Point, North Carolina, a center for furniture production in the US. Baughman is sort of the definition of a contemporary furniture designer. Highly referential to other more innovative designs by other designers, relatively inoffensive, somewhat corporate and reasonably well-made.
https://s7d2.scene7.com/is/image/Des...=2000&hei=2000
Some of Carlo Mollino's designs from the 60's make the DWR chair seem retrograde, so how could Baughman's design be called contemporary at all?
https://cdn20.pamono.com/l/g/2013/11...sa-mollino.jpg
Cassina, one of the preeminent modern furniture makers, builds all their own furniture in Italy by hand. Lots of joinery. Both current and historical designs that they own the production license for, like the Superleggera Chair by Carlo Ponti in the 1950's. Mid-century Italian design, but very highly skilled hand production. The chair references Shaker design, but no one would confuse it with Shaker furniture. Referential but original, built in their own factory, when ordered, one by one. Almost antique!
https://youtu.be/ZXACZYOvXIc
Alright @j44ke, circle takes the square. I think I was conflating "contemporary" houses (actually a thing) with contemporary furniture. In some cool renos of contemporary houses, I see a lotta midcentury furniture.
I love that Shaker chair so bad. We used to live near the largest Shaker establishment in the South, in Kentucky. Would visit all the time. The craftsmanship they didn't manage to pass down to their kids was stunning.
Best post I’ve read in a while, Jorn.
Lounge Chairs & Ottomans Archives - Thos. Moser
No recliners, but some very nice ottoman’s for those lounge chairs.
We look through their website about twice a year, but with two kids and two Newfoundlands(about 300 lbs of dog), we rethink our furniture priorities.
Thanks! I just spent the last year figuring out what furniture to put the new house.Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew Strongin
Plus an art history minor in undergraduate. I am so entirely unemployable.
My experience has been to visit a retailer, spend a decent amount of time in a chair, then place your order for delivery.
Chairs will occasionally start as pretty comfortable, yet one needs 10-15 minutes to truly make a solid evaluation.
I'm a big fan of mid-century modern furniture, especially now that I live in a house with mid-century ceiling heights. My wife pointed out that our Chippendale wingback chairs looked and felt gargantuan once we moved away from Victorian-height ceilings. They've been replaced...
We've ended up with some lovely mid-priced pieces from Room & Board and Crate & Barrel. I certainly don't love all of their stock but we've found some attractive, comfortable furniture for less than, for example, DWR.
Attachment 114662 Attachment 114663
I was delighted and nonplussed to recently discover, though, that mid-century modern furniture has entered the realm of antiques. Like Peter, I've found a fantastic local store selling a lot of gorgeous stuff. They're selling the real deal for reasonable prices.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter Polack
@j44ke Thanks so much for the informative thread. If a person wanted to learn more about some of the now-referential furniture designs of the 20th century, is there a book or three you'd recommend to start?
@Todd Amunrud I've admired the Moser workshop's work since seeing a friend's bench outside his office made from cherry with ash spindles. The contrast in the woods was and is just stunning. We currently have four dining room chairs that either need regluing or replacing. In my best of all possible worlds, we'd replace them with four of the Eastward Arm Chairs in walnut and ash:
https://www.thosmoser.com/wp-content...13-600x600.png
But, $6k for four dining room chairs that a puppy would put teeth marks in is a little steep.
@zambenini I'm all in on solid vintage furniture, but around here anything but armchairs and tables have gotten pretty pricey. We spent about two years looking for a vintage sofa without success. Options included original ones for $4-6k, or buying one with good bones for $1-2k and having it refurnished for $3-5k+.
A former neighbor of ours is a furniture restorer who mostly does craftsman and midcentury pieces, and he said they've gotten to the point that shops are taking trips to Scandinavia to fill shipping containers. They started several years ago with stuff that could be sold as-is, but now they're down to restorable pieces. And prices have gone up accordingly.
After two years of living without a sofa, we finally broke down and ordered one from West Elm. As an aside, we both agreed that a West Elm store on a Saturday night is one of the most depressing places on earth.
https://www.westelm.com/weimgs/rk/im...ofa-81-2-o.jpg
We kind of hated giving in to this sort of thing, but we got to the point of just wanting a sofa to sit on. I do wish we'd been able to find a vintage piece at a price we were willing to pay.
That thing rules! For the least depressing Saturday night possible, put a bear skin rug in front of it.
Thanks Caleb. I will have to look at our bookcases, which are not where I am right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by caleb
Based on your couch, you might start with Florence Knoll. She was a designer and, along with her husband, Hans Knoll, the head of the mid-century furniture company, Knoll. Besides bringing Eero Saarinen's and Isamu Noguchi's mid-century designs to market, she designed furniture of her own - pieces with lower profiles and squarer shapes to fit into newer style house influenced by the Case Study commissions as well as newer apartments with lower ceilings and wider windows. She is also the creator of the Knoll Planning Unit that redesigned the look of the modern office. If you've sat in an office within the last twenty years, good chance something around you was made by Knoll or influenced by their designs.
https://www.knoll.com/media/495/474/...laxed-sofa.jpg
Charles and Ray Eames I think are probably the most important mid-century designers, partly because they wrote so much and produced short films that recorded how they thought and what they thought and partly because what they were designing was so accessible. An Eames Shell Chair is brightly colored, easy to clean, easy to sit in and reasonably priced (originally - now not so much.) The Eames lounge chair, whatever your objections to modern design, was immediately comfortable to sit in - and watch TV! which was also new at that time. It even had a foot stool.
One of their most famous short films was "The Power of 10" which talks about the relationship of scale to life & living.
https://youtu.be/0fKBhvDjuy0
And the house they designed for themselves is still influential. Most of the ideas that they worked out while building this house - space, height, arrangement of rooms, windows - have become standards of house designs now. Even McMansions in Phoenix AZ have large high ceiling sitting/dining room areas with kitchens and bathrooms off that main space and bedrooms and offices above (even if their exteriors look like meh.)
https://youtu.be/hv7ipQdUrYk
There is also a very good documentary worth watching on the Eames' called "Eames: The Architect and the Painter."
I excerpted a smaller list of designers I think are important off a big list on one of the furniture sites.
Alvar Aalto - You'll recognize his bent wood chairs probably with their serpentine curves that make arms legs and feet all one part.
Marcel Breuer - The Wassily is a very famous chair, heavily copied. Breuer also designed the original Whitney Museum on Madison and 75th in NYC (among others.)
Charles & Ray Eames - As above.
Greta Grossman - A lesser known designer but one of the best (IMHO) furniture designers participating in the Case Study movement in California. Her lamps are heavily copied.
Finn Juhl - Very influential Danish modern designer. His 108 chair will look very familiar.
Arne Jacobsen - Particularly famous for watch and clock face designs as well as silverware. But also lots of furniture.
Harry Bertoia - The metal Bertoia chair is everywhere, from leather upholstered side chairs to larger lounge chairs for outdoors.
Florence Knoll - As above.
Le Corbusier - Along with the Eames', probably one of the most important designers. Worked in a firm with Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Perriand on a lot of designs.
Ludwign Mies van der Rohe - Famous architect and known in the furniture world for his collection designed for the German Pavilion at the Barcelona World's Fair, now simply called the Barcelona Pavilion. The pavilion, the Barcelona Chair w/ottoman and the Barcelona Day Bed are all super significant and highly influential (all are produced by Knoll.)
George Nakashima - American woodworker and designer extraordinaire. Brought hand made into mid-century and created the "live edge" table.
George Nelson - Clean simple designs with some whimsy leaking out around the edges. Famous for a line of creative and colorful clocks and a sofa called the Marshmallow sofa.
Richard Neutra - Architect known best for designing the houses that the work of many furniture designers went into. His houses for the Case Study program are nearly museum pieces (that people live in.)
Isamu Noguchi - Designer with an incredibly long design life who made the quintessential mid-century glass coffee table and the paper globe lamps copied everywhere.
Charlotte Perriand - Designer in the same firm as Le Courbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. She was far more influential on Le Courbusier's designs that was originally thought, and many designs originally attributed to him alone were actually collaborations or original work of Perriand's. She just had a major retrospective in Paris.
Gio Ponti - To my mind, along with Carlo Mollino, one of the best designers from Italy in the mid-century. Really great (nearly) minimal design with a flair for angles to break up any possible monotony.
Jean Prouvé - Angular, modern, functional designs, for schools, libraries, government offices & outposts - many designed for use in the (French colonial) tropics where wood rot was an issue. Used steel and wood. Solvay table is a favorite of mine.
Jens Risom - Designer of the webbing chair, originally and still to this day made by Knoll. A surprisingly comfortable chair "upholstered" with woven webbing.
Eero Saarinem - Super important architect and designer. Early collaborator with the Eames', designed the swoopy kitchen table we (and most of our friends) had in our kitchen growing up, along with the tulip chair and the womb chair - all produced by Knoll. Also designed the St. Louis Gateway Arch. Dulles Airport, TWA Terminal at JFK, Yale Hockey rink, and Lincoln Center. He liked everything to swoop.
Ettore Sotsass - Designer of the Valentine Typewriter which came with a case that doubled as a paper holder and trashcan - for Olivetti Typewriter. Among many many other objects.
Hans Wegner - Dutch modern designer of stately beautiful wooden furniture with nuanced curves, wood joinery and simple adornment. Amazing work, still produced by the original maker, Carl Hansen and Son.
Russel and Mary Wright - designers of affordable dinnerware, wood furniture and home furnishings. Their American Modern dinnerware was manufactured by Steubenville Pottery and sold in incredible numbers. You will see their dinnerware in many retro shops. They wrote a book called "Guide to Easier Living" that argued for integration of living dining and cooking areas of the house and to include guests in the preparing of food and the washing up. Big proponents of devices that lessened the workload of women so they could participate in an entire evening of socializing. Manitoga, Russel Wright's house built after his wife's death, is located in Garrison NY and open for tours.
Eva Zeisel - Zeisel was a designer of ceramics and silverware who worked with prestigious porcelain companies, Museum of Modern Art in NYC, and later with Crate & Barrel where she created a best-selling silverware set (in the late 90's?) Long life (105 years!) and prolific designer of daily usable ware.
Totally tangential (except that I will often sit in a chair to enjoy it), I've got the Eames' "Powers of Ten" flipbook sitting on a nightstand next to our guest bed. It's a wonderful example of turning abstract and challenging information into an easy-to-experience design:
https://web-assets.sugru.com/hero/up...s_of_ten_b.png
Just to throwing these out there because I love their stuff (I had Craft Associates build me a coffee and some end tables but the OTRA stuff was a bit pricey but I think it belongs in any mid-century/ modern/ contemporary discussion). Not recliners, but to add to furniture porn.
Homepage | Craft Associates(R) Furniture – craft associates(R) furniture
This page of the above is germane to the OP....Finished Modern Sofa's and Chairs | Craft Associates(R) Furniture – craft associates(R) furniture
Catenary Collection – OT/TRA by Zimmerman Workshop
Here's a Wegner and I forget what else from my current collection, chairs can be as much fun as bikes:
Attachment 114668
Attachment 114669
We got this (which is amazing that my vegetarian wife ordered it with this cover. It does come in fabrics...and other animal things). It is the most comfortable thing I have ever reclined in. It is highly adjustable. I found it at a store in British Columbia for 1000 less than Design Within Reach priced it at. (I will admit I overspent at DWR on other stuff simply because they sponsor @e-RICHIE's team and I like that). It is the Corbusier LC-4. Oh, that little table is one of the ones from Craft Associates that I mentioned above.
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a0e0534d_z.jpgLC-4 by Jon Mandel, on Flickr
love this
thank you
Quote:
Originally Posted by htwoopup
My current faves:
DePadova - We ordered a sofa and some armless chairs from here. Perfect Italian. Home | De Padova
Cassina - Pure class. Cassina: Italian Designer Furniture and Luxury Interior Design
De La Espada - Excellent furniture builders. Makes Ilse Crawford’s “Settle” series of tables, high backed benches, beds, etc. Products
Zeitrum - Handmade wooden furniture from Germany. Beautiful. Look at the Turntable Oval table. Huge and beautiful. Ships in its own container because it is one piece (though made out of many pieces.) High quality furniture solid wood - Zeitraum
If you come ton NYC and want to look at furniture, there are plenty of places to go. Here are a few smaller designer businesses that carry some unique as well as classic stuff:
SUITE NY | Designer Furniture and Home Accessories
https://www.citenyc.com/
http://www.fair-design.com/
https://www.thefutureperfect.com/
I've sat in similar designs. Well, "sat" is a total misnomer. More like "melted into". Add headphones and a dark room... Instant sensory deprivation chamber. Without getting wet.Quote:
Originally Posted by htwoopup
We have a reproduction of this chair made by our friend Janek as a project a while ago. He was restoring old mid-century Czech designs and obtaining the reproduction licenses to the more unique designs from remaining members of the original designer's families (sometimes not easy to do obviously.) This one was designed by Adolf Loos, a Czech-Austrian designer who was instrumental in bringing Functionalism to Austria and the Czech Republic (known then as Czechoslovakia of course.) It is known as the Knieschwimmer Chair - literally "Knee Swimming".
https://payload.cargocollective.com/...%20chair_o.jpg
That chair was produced starting in the early 1900's in numerous slight variations. The one in the photograph is from 1920's. When you sit in it, your head is in the perfect position to read a newspaper held by your arms resting on the armrests (aha!) at the elbows.
Loos is a very interesting designer, and some of his geometric reduction of late Austro-Hungarian styles, populated on the interior by a mix of traditional and more modern bent chrome and wood chairs and tables influenced Le Courbusier, who, along with his cousin Pierre Jeanneret and designer Charlotte Perriand, formed a firm that designed the LC4 Chaise Lounge above.
Here's Charlotte Perriand showing how it is done:
https://cache.marieclaire.fr/data/ph...se-longue2.jpg
Mid Century furniture is pretty popular these days but you can often find great deals at "antique" or "junk" shops. My wife and I have bought a lot of stuff used and had it reupholstered. So that hideous sofa with the psychedelic floral pattern may have great bones but nobody will buy it can now by your steal of a deal. Good quality furniture can be easily repaired so don't pass by something because the dowel pin connecting an arm is broken; drill it out and put in a new one. Finishes can be sanded down and redone to your liking.
Estate sales, yard sales, etc. can be great places to buy but you have to be persistant and patient. And an early riser. most yard sales begin at sunrise. :-)
My wife bought me a new Stressless recliner for $$$$. Six months later she snags a used one, very similar design but different color leather, for $200.
Happy Hunting!
I work for DWR and we have a new minimalist recliner coming out in the new year from Atlason Studios here in NYC. Can't say more but it's really a stunner and unlike your stodgy old gramps recliner of old. We also currently have the Vala, which is quite a good looking piece as well. Can't go wrong with the Baughman though. Timeless.
I got a note from my Chair that while I was out canoeing she'd put a package on my desk. She explained that when she'd opened my office door it was blocked by a couple of jackets and a robe that had fallen down when my 3M hooks let loose. I suspect the temp + humidity led to their end.
I thought about calling our facilities guys to see if they had some sort of closet they could bring over, but felt bad potentially putting an unexpected line item in someone's budget at the end of the fiscal year.
Before going to Ikea to grab something functional, I took a look on Craig's List. I found a guy a few miles away with a nice looking wardrobe. The backstory was that his wife has friends in the antique industry, and the seller and his wife accumulated more than their house could hold. They now have a second child on the way and need space. His wife told him to get rid of the big wardrobe to make room. He asked her for details about it so that he could sell it, and said that without them he was going to put it on Craig's List for fifty bucks.
I gave him fifty dollars and he helped me load it in my Subaru.
https://i.imgur.com/lA3LHWj.jpg
Not exactly a match for cheap carpet and Steelcase furniture, but fun and functional anyway.
https://i.imgur.com/buPLVqu.jpg
My office door still just barely closes. I might still need to do some rearranging.
https://i.imgur.com/ln8m7V6.jpg
The only identifying marks I could find were two signatures on the back in pencil. I'm guessing they may very well be the names of previous owners, but do they by chance mean anything to anyone here?
https://i.imgur.com/bOmkhJr.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/ndEn6s7.jpg
Can't read the signatures, but I think you are right. They look like they were done using a carpenter's pencil - those flat wide pencils with a rectangular lead. Makes a nice calligrapher's pencil sharpened to a broad point as evidence by the line variation in the signatures.
But if you can decipher the spelling of the names, do a search online. People get pretty obsessive about old furniture and certain builders. Something might pop up.
That back on the second photo looks like it has some hand hewn work to taper the edges so it fits into the slots in the sides. And then definitely don't use wood like that for the backs of wardrobes these days.
Also if the interior doesn't have a clothes rod, modern hangers are too big for the depth of most old wardrobes. So instead of hanging everything side to side, you usually have to go back to front, like you've done. Careful on screw length if you mount anything inside so you don't pop out the veneer. The piece has a nice unrestored surface to it. I wouldn't mess with that. At most, a little beeswax just to protect any areas where the old varnish/shellac has worn thin.
Drawer has an interesting cut out. Might have been for some sort of locking/latching mechanism for keeping the drawer shut.
Caleb, that's good stuff.
Thanks for the feedback, @j44ke. I pulled it out from the wall to look at the signatures again, and the best I can tell is that one is a name and the other might be an address. Looking around the internet, it sounds like apprentices often signed their work when they first struck out on their own and didn't yet have labels or stamps.
I pulled out the drawer looking for markings (no luck), and noticed the joinery.
https://i.imgur.com/KAbUlft.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/N6wiSNs.jpg
The top is joined to the sides similarly.
I'm a bit surprised that the hand cut dovetails may indicate that it's pre-1860. Not much in Minnesota is pre-1860.
From some quick reading, it sounds like the pine body points to American manufacture, rather than English or European.
Still has the pencil lines! Those are great. Definitely handmade!Quote:
Originally Posted by caleb
Minnesota became a state in 1858, so perhaps this was brought from elsewhere to Minnesota as part of a migration to the new state. Historically I think there have been population booms after a territory is declared a state. Someone brought grandma's wardrobe along for the ride.