5 Designs That Are Older Than You Think

There’s always something new under the sun as they say, but for many of us the classic designs captivate time and again. When it comes to antiques, vintage, and collectible furniture there are so many different styles to choose from. Even with history buffs there can be a few surprises in this area so here are 5 furniture and decor styles that are far older than you might have guessed.

5) Thonet Chair

The classic French bistro chair has been used around the world to signal elegant, understated, useful style. You might picture Paris in the early 1900s when you see one of these chairs, but they were actually designed by Michael Thonet in the 1840s in Vienna which is why it’s also commonly known as a Vienna chair. Regardless of the year though, these chairs are truly timeless in their style.

4) Tiffany Lamps

Many of us might think of these lamps as being from the 1910s or 1920s, but the first Tiffany lamps in stained glass were displayed at the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago. This new style combined Medieval stained glass with electrified lights and Art Nouveau decorations. It moved crowds at the event.

The details of these lamps today is often copied, but never fully replicated even at the highest levels of craftsmanship. Tiffany Studios had a unique blend of skilled staff, dedication to quality, and a reputation to uphold. Even the people responsible for choosing the colors took their jobs extremely seriously.

3) Breuer Chair

This icon of 1960s and 1970s interiors is a chair that’s both comfortable and easy to produce. The hollow steel tubing makes it flexible in a way that other chairs aren’t- a true marvel of the modern era. Right? Well this chair was actually designed in the 1920s by Marcel Breuer and is known as the B32 chair or the Cecsa chair (named after his daughter Francesca).

The chair design comes from the Bauhaus movement, the German schools where art, utility, and reproducibility converged. Even though this chair dates way back to 1928 Breuer never registered his design, meaning copies have flooded the market ever since his chair was first unveiled.

2) Art Deco Style

We often think of Art Deco as being the signature style of the 1920s and 1930s. “Arts décoratifs” in French, or Art Deco for short, was a movement founded in the Arts and Crafts style that honored the unique designs that artisans and designers brought to everyday objects. The Société des artistes décorateurs (Society of Decorative Artists) was founded in France in 1901, a good 20 years before Art Deco was being popularized in the 1920s. The 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris showcased their work and brought the style into public view. While many designs of the time featured natural motifs, the streamlined aesthetics of Art Deco were also present in these early works.

1) Eames Dining Chair

Ray and Charles Eames today are considered to have essentially jump started the midcentury modern style with their molded plywood and fiberglass chairs. Their earliest forays into this new genre were created in 1945, like their iconic dining chair released through Herman Miller in 1945 from a production process begun earlier in the decade. This chair and their other designs epitomized modern design in the 1950s and 1960s, but the chair has roots in the early 1940s.