guest blog by Grace Bonney 6

marvelous mid-century

In the popular imagination, at least, “mid-century” spans decades – from Eames to Pop Art. Danish Modern pieces, with their organic shapes and emphasis on craftsmanship, blend well with other styles. Mod pieces can add a welcome burst of color.

These delightful shelves were produced by Tomado Holland in the 1950′s. I often see wall-mounted units, but freestanding sets are rarer.


Hans Wegner made appealing, comfortable furniture like this table. He’s one of my favorite designers of the period, although he would probably have preferred the term cabinetmaker.


These round Kartell storage units would look brilliant in a kid’s room.


Jens Risom is another giant of the mid-century. He originally designed these chairs, which look like everything IKEA wants to be but isn’t, to incorporate parachute webbing.


Tripod lamps just scream “Sixties” to me. This one reminds me of a famous Robsjohn-Gibbings design, but it’s been updated with a crisp black shade.


And now for my favorite find of the day. Kay Bojesen was a Danish silversmith who made charming wooden toys and children’s cutlery. Forty-odd years ago, his toys cost $3.50. Now the rarer versions can sell for hundreds. These pigs – are they actually salt and pepper shakers? – don’t seem to be by Bojesen, but they’re certainly in the same spirit.

eBay keywords to remember: Eames, Danish Modern, Bojesen, Finn Juhl, Wegner, mid-century, Kagan, Panton, mod, Knoll, atomic.

Sellers to bookmark: modhardware, MetroRetro, modlifecrisis.

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6 Comments

meg

that shelf is too cute! too bad (for me) it’s in the netherlands…

Jessica

how do you bookmark a seller? entering their names into “search” brings up nothing . . .

Kristen

Ditto on the shelf…and I’d have the perfect place for it too!! 8(

Another Shade of Grey

Jessica, if you have an ebay account, go to your accounts and on the left hand margins there are lists of categories. One of those is “favorite sellers”. If you are looking at an item for sale by a seller you want to remember there is an option underneath their name to “mark as favorite seller”. That’s all it takes.

Molly, am so enjoying your posts. Very, very useful information and great finds. Keep it up.

Molly

Believe it or not, shipping from the Netherlands is neither arduous nor prohibitively expensive. These shelves are shipping for $70 to the U.S. I had some tables shipped from Holland, and they arrived in perfect condition.

Nancy

Hans Wegner died just a couple of weeks ago at age 92. We have several score of his classic “Round Chair” at the library I work in, and they have been serving beautifully, comfortably, and sturdily for over forty years.

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