Incredible late 1950's Dunbar 7-drawer chest by Ed Wormley. Warm light walnut stain on mahogany veneer. Solid oak secondary wood is used for the drawers, and they are dovetailed on all four corners. Leather wrapped base. The back of the top has a flared edge, which mimics the flared ends to each drawer that form the handles.
This is one of 16 Ed Wormley/Dunbar pieces we are listing from a
single Chicago North Shore estate. Please see our other offerings/listings.
Please
note that all of the Dunbar pieces we are selling from this estate are
all original, no refinishing work, and each piece has been thoroughly
examined under bright light and with a magnifier. The condition reports
are below.
In exceptional vintage condition. The top has two very small areas with some fine scratching that does not break the stain - each is about four or five strokes a few inches long. Not easily noticeable. Otherwise this piece is all original and nearly pristine. Structurally without issue. There is a minor buckle at the base's leather on the right hand side on a small portion. Otherwise, there are no issues to report. The drawers slide smoothly and evenly, and are immaculate. Dunbar brass label mounted in the top drawer. As nice as an original piece that you will ever see.
The piece measures 34" wide, 21" deep and 43" tall.
Shipping is FREE in the Continental USA. Please allow 14 to 21 days for delivery. The item will be hand delivered directly to your residence or business. Please email for an international shipping quote. Email us your questions, and check out our fully stocked Ebay Store!
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 Wormleys signature pieces 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 items on these pages demonstrate, Edward Wormley
conceived of a subdued sort of modernism, designing furniture that fits
into any decorating scheme and does not shout for attention.
Please contact us if you have any questions at all. We are here to help you with your purchase decisions. Please view the total listing as there are more pictures at the bottom of the listing. Shipping Cost, if quoted in the listing, is an estimate and is based upon us using the least expensive way of shipping to you if your address is a street address in the Continental United States Only (48 States), all others (i.e. foreign country, Alaska and Hawaii residents), please contact us prior to purchase for a shipping quote. Thank you.