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American Art Deco Furniture

Donald Deskey for AMODEC American Art Deco Vanity Mirror and Bench

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 three piece vanity for his own company, AMODEC (American Modern Decoration Company) in 1935. Made of Australian Laurel (Oriental Walnut) with burl drawer fronts, mirror trim and feet on the bench, the vanity sports bright nickel pulls on the drawer handles. The three pieces are in excellent condition and restored to their original state of 75 years ago. The vanity retains the distinctive blue and silver AMODEC label and the bench is covered in faux chamois leather. The vanity measures 25 ½” high, 54” wide and 18” deep, the bench 16 ½” high, 21” wide and 15” deep and the mirror is 33 ¼” x 24”.

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Reference# AF133

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