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American Art Deco Furniture

DONALD DESKEY American Art Deco Vanity and Mirror for Widdicomb Furniture

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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(1884 – 1989 designed this vanity,mirror, and stool for the Widdicomb Furniture Company of Grand Rapids ca. 1932. The vanity, which has been refinished in its original birds eye maple and green enamel, matches the mirror with its edge in the same green. The vanity is 48” wide x 18” deep and 24” high. The mirror is 38” in diameter. The stool is 15 1/2" high and 19" in diameter

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Reference# AF137

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