American, ca 1940-1950. A console table designed by Edward Wormley (American 1907-1997) for Dunbar, of pine with a frieze of carved rinceau on three sides of the top which is supported by a carved scallop shell resting on rectangular plinth with slopping sides; ht. 29.5, wd. 32.25, dp. 11.75 in.
Edward Wormley, born in Illinois in 1907, attended the Art Institute of Chicago where he learned cabinetmaking. Without graduating because of finances, Wormley was hired at Marshall Field & Co, Chicago, and later, Berkey & Gay Furniture Manufacturers, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Wormley traveled to Paris, France, met designer Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, who he said changed his vision of furniture design. In the 1930s, Dunbar Furniture Corporation, Berne, Indiana, hired Wormley to "breathe new life in the company’s lower end furniture". Wormley combined historic designs with modern comfort and merged ideas from European furniture designers such as Jean-Michel Frank of France and Richard Riemerschmid of Germany. At Wormley’s urging, Dunbar agreed to manufacture modern reproductions of these designers’ historical pieces. Those pieces borrowed from the past to move forward, and were made comfortable by his understanding of what Americans valued in their furniture. Though he began at Dunbar restyling a furniture line that people bought with soap coupons, Wormley created inexpensive high style lines and was one of the most successful furniture designers in America, and a major influence on American modern design.
Condition: Originally, one of a pair. Age crack down length of table top.