Paul Frankl Pair of Side Tables Model 5015 in Mahogany and Cork

Paul Frankl for Johnson Furniture, pair of side tables model 5015, cork, mahogany, United States, 1950s

This pair of side tables is designed by the Austrian-American modernist designer Paul Frankl. The rectangular cork tabletop rests on a dark mahogany frame which features another shelf on the bottom. 

Johnson Furniture Company was one of the most respected furniture manufacturers in Grand Rapids, Michigan, which was then the centre of American furniture industry. Three brothers from Sweden founded the company three decades before. Their 'Dynamique' line, based on French Art Moderne and Frankl's skyscraper designs, became the first complete set of mass-produced furniture made in the United States. The Johnson company focussed mainly on the conservative, middle-class market. Paul Frankl was a perfect match for this production company as he spent the decade before designing for the Hollywood elite.

Paul T. Frankl (1886-1958) was a furniture and interior designer born in Austria. At the age of 28 he moved to the United States. It was here that Frankl found his true aesthetic voice and style. Frankl was pre-eminently an advocate of the American Modernism. He believed in a new, optimist world. Frankl witnessed two World Wars and aimed to create a new, brave and upward new world order through his design. He has written extensively on the subject of Modern architecture and design and skyscrapers where one of his trademark features. The new structure of the skyscraper, rising up into the sky broke completely with the constraints of the past. The towering architectural form expressed the excitement and optimism of a new era.

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