Midcentury Modern Design

[Subdude]

Sept. 10, 2004, 10:58PM

Built to Last

By DEBORAH MANN LAKE

Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

As with all great collections, it started with a single exciting piece -- a sleek, sexy dame of a vacuum cleaner that piqued the interest of Houston collector Don Emmite.

That's right, a vacuum cleaner. But not just any old dirt sucker. This was a 1937 Model 30 Electrolux, a silver cylinder inspired by fantasy rocket ships, a machine that harked back to the days when industrial design meant that something worked as beautifully as it looked.

He found it at an Almeda Road flea market nearly 20 years ago. Before long Emmite and his partner Jim Power also bought a 1933 General Electric mixer signed by designer Lurelle Guild, a 1941 reversible iron, and an extremely rare 1939 Manning-Bowman twin-o-matic rotating waffle iron that debuted at the 1939 New York World Fair.

It was only a matter of time before their love affair led to furniture, dishware and large appliances.

Some of their collection will be included in an exhibition, "Mid-Century Modern Revisited: Design 1943-1953," opening Sept. 24 at Brazos Projects, 2425 Bissonnet.

"It became an obsession, really," Emmite said of their industrial appliance collection. "This was the heyday of industrial American design. These appliances were designed to get people stimulated to buy during the Depression. They gave the feeling of moving forward, of being positive."

Manufacturers such as Westinghouse, Sunbeam, General Electric and RCA hired the best industrial designers of the time, trying to outdo each other, he said.

When Emmite and Power began their collection two decades ago, they could pick up pieces fairly cheap, such as a pink, circa 1959 Sunbeam iron for $6 at the Blue Bird Circle Resale Shop.

"We started buying books to educate ourselves about important pieces, and we searched through antiques and re-sale shops," Emmite said. "Almost everything we have works -- most of the time you can't kill these things. There was no such thing as built-in obsolescence then. They were made to be taken apart and fixed."

From small appliances, they moved to larger ones. Their 1960 home in Braeswood Place still had its original pink double ovens. Emmite and Power eventually located a pink stove-top through a friend in San Antonio and a pink washer and dryer spotted by a friend in Palm Springs, Calif.

In the same way the industrial design products of the '30s led the way to the '50s heyday of modern furniture, Emmite began to be drawn to mid-century pieces of decorative arts and furnishings.

Again, he did his homework, learning about the philosophy behind the design. With the war behind and space travel ahead, the American mood was optimistic, reflected in the lighthearted pink and turquoise of the period, he said. (As the country's mood darkened with the Vietnam War and Watergate, darker colors such as brown, orange, harvest gold and avocado would rule home furnishings.)

The first piece of furniture Emmite collected was a Hermann Miller coffee table originally designed by Isamu Noguchi in 1944. It was put back into production in 1987 when Emmite bought his piece. The sculptured wooden base holding a glass top reveals Noguchi's roots as an artist.

Emmite also has two "comprehensive storage system" units with interchangeable parts mounted on steel poles, circa 1955, designed by George Nelson.

Nelson, Eames and Noguchi all designed for Herman Miller, a company owned by D.J. DePree of Grand Rapids, Mich., that dated to 1919, according to Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s by Cara Greenberg (Three Rivers Press, $25).

Collectors use different means to try to date their pieces. The type of wood, such as a Charles Eames rosewood and leather lounge chair Emmite owns, can be traced to the late '60s when the rare rosewood was still available.

Emmite's two Eames original plywood dining chairs, circa 1945, are especially valuable because they carry labels from Evans Plywood Products, which dates them to a time before Herman Miller purchased the rights. One of the chairs will be in the Brazos Projects exhibit.

In the living-room mix is an Eames "compact" sofa designed in 1954 to fold up compactly for shipping. It is still produced by Herman Miller, and Emmite purchased his sofa in 1999.

Much of the pottery and glassware sitting on the storage units in the adjacent living and dining rooms were designed by Russel Wright. Included are rare wineglasses in a frosted white dated 1965, just before Wright retired.

"Russel Wright was an industrial designer who set the pace of mid-century modern homemaking from the '40s to the early 1960s," Emmite said.

While Hermann Miller pieces dominate the front two rooms of the collectors' house, the den is filled with such vintage Knoll pieces as a 1955 upholstered sofa and chair by Frances Knoll. She also designed the white laminate and steel side tables with a T-base that identifies them as early Knoll design. The walnut oval coffee table was designed by another mid-century legend for Knoll, Eero Saarinen.

Above the sofa is a 1956 abstract city scape painting by Paul Maxwell, an artist who called Houston home in the 1960s. "We like to pick up things with a Houston history," Power said.

All of the furnishings fit the '60s house perfectly, giving the home a sense of extra space because major pieces such as the sofas are on legs and are smaller-scaled.

"You have to respect the architecture of the home," Emmite said. "This home is still a good example of late mid-century modern design but it's understated so the furniture can make a strong statement."

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