Today Paul McCobb's furniture and interior designs of the 1950s rank alongside Russell Wright, Gustav Stickley, and Heywood-Wakefield as marked staples in modern design. Paul McCobb's Directional Designs furniture line exhibits the low-cost, functional, and versatile furniture components, storage units, and interiors that earned McCobb the title of "America's decorator" during the mid-twentieth century. Containing over 100 coordinating room settings, including chairs, sofas, desks, benches, shelves, interiors, and much more, with information on McCobb's achievements and design principles, up-to-date price guide, and index, this book presents one of the backbones of modern design.

Take a detailed look at the exciting and highly collectible modern furniture of the 1950s--furniture created by renowned designers, including Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson, Harry Bertoia, Isamu Noguchi, and Eero Saarinen, and produced by companies such as Herman Miller, Knoll, and Heywood-Wakefield. Included in this new and improved second edition are over 450 color and vintage black and white photographs bearing detailed captions for all the classic designs, plus accessories, 70 designer biographies and company histories, a construction case study, a source list, bibliography, values, and an index. This single volume is an invaluable reference.

The book describes the development of the colorful, organic style that defined the Fifties and reflected the optimism and consumerism of postwar culture in the United States and abroad, with examples ranging from architecture, building, engineering, and transport to appliances, tableware, furnishings, and dime-store novelties.

"More than 25,000 updated prices, 240 popular categories, collectibles from 1930s to today, expert collecting advice, histories, references"--Cover

Contains information drawn from Grove Art Online and new material written by G. Campbell. Cf. Preface.

Gathers essays about modernism, Marxist criticism art patronage, Wallace Stevens, Picasso, Aaron Copland, Michel Foucault, Barbara Pym, Richard Serra, and Cindy Sherman.

From native-American artifacts, Depression glass, and toys to lamps and lighting and paper ephemera, this authoritative "bible" is an essential field guide to more than 500 categories of collectibles. The 2001 edition features a new category of American paintings along with special emphasis on English and Continental furniture. 600 photos. (Antiques/Collectibles)