About the Item
A most special and large iconic set of Mid Century Modern Dining Chairs designed by one of the most beloved of all Paul Frankl fully restored from top to bottom with newly refinished bleached mahogany frames and new cushions and latte bouclé upholstery. Our shop has carried several Paul Frankl dining sets and pieces, but never this one. Fair warning – we wouldn’t expect to see it again. If you enjoy hosting large dinner parties and want your guests to be very comfortable in beautiful sculptural dining chairs, these are your dining chairs. And if you love Mid Century Modern designer collected pieces and want to take a big bite, these are your dining chairs. No doubt the buyer of this set will be enamored with the chairs’ welcoming curves and shapes and overall silhouette. And the buyer of this set will appreciate and be delighted to acquire a large fully restored designer Paul Frankl Mid Century Modern Dining Chair Set of 14. Indeed, an acquisition. The overall shape is curvy and cozy. Gregarious. Cushioned and slightly curved seat back gently hugs your back just right. Unique to this design is the open square cut out also framed in bleached mahogany. A sexy look that in function ventilates as well. Comfortable seat cushion as Paul Frankl intended for long dinner parties full of interesting conversation. The seat cushion also slightly tilts to encourage you to sit back and let the chair get you comfortable. Splayed back legs curtsy for attention. The latte bouclé fabric works well in all climates. Its texture ventilates in summer but also feels cozy in winter. Bouclé is rated highly durable. Cheers! Photographed with and also currently available in our shop – Set of 14 Paul Frankl Corset Oak Dining Chairs for Brown Saltman in Latte Bouclé Set of 6 Mid Century Wormley for Dunbar Style Cane & Mahogany Dining Chairs Set of 12 Adrian Pearsall Sculptural High Back Dining Chairs in Latte Bouclé Set of 14 Hollywood Regency Moroccan Tommi Parzinger Style Dining Chairs c. 1960 Set of 8 Fully Restored Jens Risom Mid-Century Modern Playboy Dining Chairs MEASUREMENTS Arm chair 32” h x 25” d x 26” w arm height 25”, seat height 18.5” Side Chair 32” h x 24” d x 21” w seat height 18.5″
About the Designer
Born in Vienna, Paul Frankl came to the United States in 1914 as part of a wave of Central European design luminaries — among them Kem Weber, Rudolph Schindler, and Richard Neutra — who were drawn by the energy and optimism of the American scene. Prolific and protean, Frankl would go on to design furnishings that are emblematic of nearly every key stylistic chord in American modernism, from the streamlined Art Deco to free-form organic shapes.
Frankl’s Skyscraper cabinets, bookcases and more — introduced in 1924 — are his earliest and best-known designs (and the work by which he is most often represented in institutions, such as New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art). Tall and narrow, the pieces have staggered shelves meant to mimic the setbacks of Manhattan office towers. A later visually expressive line — the Speed chairs and sofas, which have a raked profile suggesting motion — links Frankl to Donald Deskey, Raymond Loewy and other creators of Streamline Moderne design.
Frankl moved to Los Angeles in 1934 and luxuriated in the climate and lifestyle. His designs became lighter and simpler and found an audience among the Hollywood élite. (Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and Fred Astaire were clients.) Fascinated by Asian arts, Frankl produced numerous pieces — tabletops with edges that curve upward; sofas, chairs and other seating with rattan frames — inspired by Chinese and Japanese forms and materials. In the 1940s, Frankl became one of the first designers to incorporate free-form, biomorphic shapes in his work, as well as novel upholstery fabrics such as denim and nubby wool.
Frankl biographer Christopher Long argues that the designer’s easy, elegant aesthetic had an enormous influence on movie set design. As the furniture below attests, Paul Frankl’s work is ready for its close-up.
