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American Art Deco Furniture

American Art Deco Donald Deskey Bedroom Set

Modernism Gallery

Donald DeskeyDonald Deskey
American [1894 - 1989] 

Donald Deskey was born in Blue Earth, Minnesota in 1894. In 1912 he left for California with a high school diploma. After a series of jobs, a stint in the army, and attendance at The University of California at Berkeley to study architecture and painting he began in 1920 working in advertising, first Chicago then New York. In 1925 he visited the Exposition International des Arts Decoratifs et Industrials Moderns and the Bauhaus in Germany. He came back to New York in 1926 committed to the modern movement. He created store window displays for Saks- Fifth Avenue and made folding screens for Paul Frankl. Frankl paid Deskey $35 per screen and sold them for $400… a tidy profit. Through his work at Saks, Deskey met the company president, Adam Gimbel and showed him some furniture drawings he had made in Paris. Gimbel was impressed enough that he commissioned Deskey to furnish the interior of his Park Avenue apartment, Deskey’s first...
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designed this spectacular bedroom set for Widdicomb in 1935. Breaking all precedent, Deskey designed the first and arguably only workable art deco asymmetrical bedroom set. On the case goods one side curves from top to bottom, the other curves from front to back. This set consists of a tall chest, vanity and mirror, vanity bench and night stand. The set features maple drawer fronts and mahogany tops and sides.

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