{"product_id":"rare-edward-wormley-model-5719-la-gondola-sofa-dunbar-1957","title":"Rare Edward Wormley Model #5719, La Gondola Sofa, Dunbar, 1957","description":"\u003cp\u003eome sofas sit in a room. This one floats in it.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReleased by Dunbar in 1957 as a limited edition piece, the La Gondola is arguably Edward Wormley's most iconic design ~ and coming from a man who spent four decades making furniture that reads like cinematic masterpieces, that's saying something. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt 112 inches long, it doesn't ask to be in the room... it claims it. And yet somehow, despite that massive wingspan, it is not heavy. It is not imposing. It floats. The deep sweeping gondola-shaped frame gives it the quality of something that should be on water rather than a floor (hence the name La Gondola). The arc curving down and around at each end into those iconic winged armrests that taper and curl outward like the prow of a Venetian boat is pure theater. This is Wormley at his most seductive.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEdward Wormley was once the most famous furniture designer in America, and somehow a lot of people have still never heard of him. It's truly a crime, and I'm here to fix that--\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBorn in rural Illinois, Wormley studied at the Art Institute of Chicago before a trip to Paris in 1930 brought him face to face with Le Corbusier and Art Deco mega-master Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann. It was those two encounters that essentially lit his fuse and triggered his passion for furniture design. At 23 years old, he was recruited by Dunbar Furniture Corporation, a collaboration that spanned over three decades and would ultimately make Wormley a household name. Instead of trying to be at the forefront of googie modern design, Wormley took elements from classical and historical designs and translated them into modern-- original quiet luxury, and the result was furniture that didn't shout about being modern. It just was. Quietly, and confidently, \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis designs were exhibited in 1950 at MoMA's \"Good Design\" collection alongside other established midcentury royalty Eames and Nelson. His status as American design hero was cemented in 1961 when Playboy Magazine photographed him alongside Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, George Nelson, and Harry Bertoia, each man sitting on one of their own designs. He belonged in that room and he still does. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat sets Wormley apart from his contemporaries and what makes collecting his work feel less like furniture shopping and more like acquiring a piece of cultural history is, the man built bridges. Before collaborations between luxury brands and designers were a thing-- before Louis Vuitton x Supreme, Virgil Abloh x IKEA, or Adidas x Gucci made the rounds on every design blog ~ Wormley was already there. His tile-topped tables, created as part of the Janus Collection in 1957 for Dunbar, were a partnership between modern production design and the tile traditions of Tiffany Studios as well as famous ceramicists Otto and Gertrude Natzler. Tiffany. As in, Tiffany \u0026amp; Co... the one whose original collaborations include Patek Philippe ~ and we all know how that worked out. When Tiffany decides you're worth collaborating with, you're not a trend. You are a legacy.\u003cbr\u003eWormley wasn't chasing relevance. He was building it from scratch, in mahogany, in Indiana, one extraordinary piece at a time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis Sofa, Specifically is Model 5719 from the 1957 Janus Collection. Let's talk about what you're actually looking at.\u003cbr\u003eThe silhouette is the first thing. That low, wide, deeply curved frame has a gondola-shaped profile that rises at each end into those signature splayed armrests-- open, airy, angled outward as if the sofa is mid exhale. There is no visual weight here despite the extra large scale. The whole thing reads as one continuous, uninterrupted line from one winged tip to the other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe upholstery is a rich, slightly off-white cotton tweed with the most exquisite cognac leather welt piping tracing every single edge, and if you look closely, there are a lot of edges on this sofa. That contrast piping is doing real work; it follows the arc of the back cushion, traces the sweep of the seat, outlines each armrest, and defines the whole silhouette with a precision that makes the sofa look tailored rather than upholstered. Think of it as the stitching on a bespoke suit. You notice it, and it changes everything.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe back of this sofa is where Wormley really shows off. Rather than the upholstered slab you'd find on practically every other sofa of the era, the La Gondola's back is intentionally left open and architectural \/ sculptural-- the upholstered back cushion floats above an exposed mahogany framework of angled A-frame supports connected by a flat stretcher, leaving the entire lower half of the back completely open to the room. It's the furniture equivalent of a watch with an exhibition caseback-- structural, intentional, and frankly a little breathtaking. That cognac leather welt piping traces every edge of the back panel and the floating cushion above it, so even from behind the sofa reads just as finished and considered as the front. This is a piece that was designed with the full understanding that someone in the room will always be looking at it from every angle, and it has absolutely nothing to hide.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMost La Gondola sofas that come to market have lost their original tags during the decades of reupholstery cycles they've been through. Ours has something better. During reupholstery, we discovered that the style number and serial number — 5719, along with the full production stamp — are actually pressed directly into the mahogany frame itself. This is not a paper label that falls off. This is not a sticker someone affixed hopefully. This is the factory's own hand, stamped into the frame at the moment of production, which means this sofa comes with its own birth certificate built right into its bones.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe've had this example expertly reupholstered in a luxurious off-white cotton tweed with cognac leather welt and tufting, honoring Wormley's original two-tone vision for this design completely.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a sofa for someone who understands that the best things don't announce themselves. They simply exist, undeniably, in a category of their own.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HabitatGallery","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47239671709865,"sku":null,"price":55000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0688\/0575\/5049\/files\/f_50806822_1782874536123_bg_processed.jpg?v=1783012984","url":"https:\/\/habitat-gallery.com\/products\/rare-edward-wormley-model-5719-la-gondola-sofa-dunbar-1957","provider":"HabitatGallery","version":"1.0","type":"link"}