Ormolu clocks dating from the Louis XVI period, designed in the neoclassical style, are often profusely ornate, featuring architectural flourishes and rich naturalistic details. Minimalist contemporary clocks and books pair nicely on a shelf, but an eye-catching vintage mantel clock can add balance to your home library while drawing attention to your art and design books and other decorative objects. For conversation pieces of a similar breed, mid-century modern enthusiasts go for the curious Ball clock, the first of more than 150 clock models conceived in the studio of legendary architect and designer George Nelson. An interactive cuckoo clock, large or small, is guaranteed to bring outsize personality to your living room or dining room. A large antique hand-carved walnut wall clock is best suited to a big room and a flat background given what will likely be outwardly sculptural features, while Georgian grandfather clocks, or longcase clocks, will help welcome rainswept guests into your entryway or foyer. In short, there are many kinds of clocks depending on your needs.Ī variety of wall clocks can be found on 1stDibs. But the art of clock-making goes way back, transcending continents and encompassing an entire range of design styles and technologies. When most people think of antique clocks, they imagine an Art Deco Bakelite tabletop or wall clock, named for the revolutionary synthetic plastic, Bakelite, of which they’re made, or a stately antique grandfather clock. Given the versatility of these treasured fixtures - they’ve long been made in a range of shapes, sizes and styles - a clock can prove integral to your own particular interior decor.Īntique and vintage clocks can whisk us back to the 18th and 19th centuries. This is part of the reason clocks make such superb collectibles. A Close Look at Mid-Century Modern FurnitureĪ sophisticated clock design, whether it’s a wall clock, desk clock, mantel clock or other variation, is a decorative object to be admired in your home as much as it is a necessary functional element. There were Young Turks such as Paul McCobb - who designed holistic groups of sleek, blonde-wood furniture - and Milo Baughman, who espoused a West Coast aesthetic in lushly upholstered chairs and sofas with angular steel frames.Īs the collection of vintage mid-century modern chairs, dressers, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs demonstrates, this period saw one of the most delightful and dramatic flowerings of creativity in design history. Robsjohn-Gibbings switched gears, creating items such as the tiered, biomorphic Mesa table. The Risom lounge chair was among the first pieces of furniture commissioned and produced by legendary manufacturer Knoll, a chief influence in the rise of modern design in the United States thanks to the work of Florence Knoll, the pioneering architect and designer who made the firm a leader in its field.Īs the demand for casual, uncluttered furnishings grew, more mid-century designers caught the spirit.Ĭlassically-oriented creators such as Edward Wormley, house designer for Dunbar Inc., offered such pieces as the sinuous Listen to Me chaise the British expatriate T.H. Materials were re-purposed: the Danish-born designer Jens Risom created a line of chairs that used surplus parachute straps for webbed seats and backrests. Harry Bertoia and Isamu Noguchi devised chairs and tables built of wire mesh and wire struts.
George Nelson and his design team created Bubble lamp shades using a new translucent polymer skin. Charles and Ray Eames and Eero Saarinen, who had experimented extensively with molded plywood, eagerly embraced fiberglass for, respectively, pieces such as the La Chaise and the Womb chair. Materials developed for wartime use became available for domestic goods and were incorporated into mid-century modern furniture designs. 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 such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius had been promoted in the United States during the ’30s by Philip Johnson and others. Postwar American architects and designers were animated by new ideas and new technology.
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 American furniture.
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