Art Deco Machine Age Sofa Designed by Gilbert Rohde for Troy Sunshade Company

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About the Item

Iconic Art Deco Machine Age sofa designed by Gilbert Rohde for the Troy Sunshade Company, circa 1930’s. The couch features a sexy tubular chrome frame, with thick cushions. This classic design still looks modern and relevant almost 100 years after its production. The sofa is structurally sound and sturdy, the chrome is bright and shiny, the cushions show significant wear, see images.
Please view the matching lounge chair, listed separately at Barbarella Home, on 1st dibs, this lot includes the sofa only.
Total H 30.5 x Arm H 21 x Seat H 16 x W 68.5 x D 32 inches.Creator: Troy Sunshade Company (Manufacturer),Gilbert Rohde (Designer)Dimensions: Height: 28 in (71.12 cm)Width: 68.5 in (173.99 cm)Depth: 32 in (81.28 cm)Seat Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Style: Art Deco (Of the Period)Materials and Techniques: Chrome,UpholsteryPlace of Origin: United StatesPeriod: 1930-1939Date of Manufacture: 1930’sCondition: GoodWear consistent with age and use. Structurally sound and sturdy, chrome frame bright and shiny, cushions show wear, please see images and description.Seller Location: New York, NYReference Number: 1stDibs: LU978736394042Shop All Gilbert Rohde

Gilbert Rohde

Pioneering self-taught industrial designer, writer and teacher Gilbert Rohde helped define the earliest phase of modernism in the United States. He is one of the most influential figures of 20th-century design and is credited with helping legendary mid-century modern furniture manufacturer Herman Miller avert financial disaster during the Great Depression.

Born in New York City, Rohde studied painting at the Art Students League after high school. He found lucrative employment, first as a political cartoonist and then as a catalog illustrator for American department stores. He was particularly enthralled with drawing furnished interiors.

Rohde began to design furniture in his spare time. He traveled to the Bauhaus school in Germany and the International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts in Paris, and drew on the Art Deco movement and the work of designers such as mile-Jacques Ruhlmann in his early pieces. Rohde opened his own studio in 1929 and secured private and commercial commissions. His clients would come to include formidable furniture makers Heywood-Wakefield and Troy Sunshade, and his innovative bentwood furnishings for them were practical and intended for the modern consumer.

In 1930, Rohde met Herman Miller founder D.J. De Pree in the companys Michigan showroom during a business trip. By then, Rohde had a long list of prominent clients and his furniture had been exhibited in museums and galleries. Herman Miller was weathering a devastating slowdown in business, and the American furniture industry had generally been hit hard by the Great Depression.

Rohde boldly informed De Pree that the brands furniture had become outdated, which was part of the reason the company was in financial jeopardy. Homes had become smaller and could no longer accommodate the large Gothic and Victorianstyle furnishings and traditional reproductions of period bedroom suites that Herman Miller was offering at the time, Rohde explained.

Rohde secured a contract to design for the Michigan manufacturer. He championed the use of exotic woods and tubular steel, and created streamlined, unadorned bedroom furniture for Herman Miller collections that included convenient vanities, which were unconventional pieces for De Prees company back then.

In 1933, Rohde oversaw the design of two bedrooms featuring sleek Herman Miller furniture including innovative storage pieces he designed as part of an Internationalstyle exhibit at the 1933 Chicago Worlds Fair. The installation garnered acclaim for De Prees brand all over the world and afforded Rohde the opportunity to execute on his visionary ideas in front of a global audience. Rohde later designed lighting, seating and more for Herman Miller and was extensively involved in the company’s marketing strategy and other areas of the business.

In 1942, Herman Miller, anticipating a postwar economic boom, began to produce office furniture for the first time, but its legacy is in the home. Working with legendary designers such as Ray and Charles Eames, Isamu Noguchi and Alexander Girard, the manufacturer fostered some of the boldest expressions of what we now call mid-century modern style.

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