Australian Modernist Desk, Mountain Ash and Blackwood, 1950s
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An Australian post-war modernist desk, single drawer with square tapering legs, mountain ash and blackwood, circa 1950s, 74 cm high, 115 cm wide, 53 cm deep
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- Modernism / Modernist - Modernist furniture and design emerged in the early to mid-20th century as a response to traditional styles of the 19th century and prior times, and a reflection of the technological and social changes of the time. Characteristics of Modernist furniture and design include simplicity and minimalism and clean lines and a lack of unnecessary ornamentation are key features. That form follows function is a fundamental principle of Modernist design, and furniture and objects are designed with a focus on their practical use.
Modernist furniture often incorporates geometric shapes, such as cubes, rectangles, and circles. This reflects a departure from the more ornate and curvilinear forms of previous design styles. The furniture often prioritizes ergonomic design, ensuring that objects are comfortable and user-friendly. Modernist designers aimed to create designs that could be mass-produced, making good design accessible to a broader population.
Prominent figures associated with Modernist furniture and object design include designers such as Hans Wegner, Verner Panton, Florence Knoll, Harry Bertoia and Ettore Sottsass - Circa - A Latin term meaning 'about', often used in the antique trade to give an approximate date for the piece, usually considered to be five years on either side of the circa year. Thus, circa 1900 means the piece was made about 1900, probably between 1895 and 1905. The expression is sometimes abbreviated to c.1900.
- Blackwood - One of the best known and most widely used Australian timbers, blackwood (acacia melanoxylon), is a member of the Acacia (wattle) family and grows in eastern Australia from about Adelaide in South Australia, as far north as Cairns in Queensland.
The largest, straightest and tallest trees come from the wet forest and swamps of north-west Tasmania where it is grown commercially.
Blackwood timber colours range across a wide spectrum, from a very pale honey colour through to a dark chocolate with streaks of red tinge.
The hardwood timber has been commonly used in the production of furniture, flooring, and musical instruments in Australia from the late 19th century. However, the straight grain timber is not the most prized or valuable, that honour falls to blackwood with a wavy, fiddleback pattern, which is used both in the solid and as a veneer. Fiddleback was only used on the finest examples of furniture.
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