Historic object
Cradle 1971.217
A New York cradle of 1815–20 brings late Federal taste into the nursery through a broad hood, rounded wooden enclosure and curved rockers.
Objects · people · ideas
Browse the Library
Discover the objects, people and ideas that shaped furniture, from historic pieces to modern designs.
381 entries
Page 5 of 16
Design
Crate Chair
How Gerrit Rietveld’s Crate Chair connected ordinary boards, visible assembly and a different way of selling furniture.
Style
Danish Modern
Understand Danish Modern as a historical era, design method and international label—not a shortcut for pale wood, minimalism or automatic authenticity.
Design
David Rowland 40/4 chair
Why David Rowland’s 40/4 chair is named after a stack, how small gaps return space to a room, and what separates the 1964 steel example from later variants.
Historic object
Declaration of Independence Desk PL.031819
Open the small mahogany desk made by Benjamin Randolph for Thomas Jefferson, then follow its journey from a working tool to a replacement wedding gift.
Historic object
Dickens’s Gad’s Hill desk and chair, DH105
Explore Dickens’s surviving Gad’s Hill desk and chair, the manuscripts around their history, and the empty study that became an image of memory.
Historic object
Dining room chair from the Speaker’s House, Palace of Westminster 2015.638
Made in 1859 after Pugin’s death, a Speaker’s House chair separates design from manufacture. Its oak X-frame helps explain the afterlife of a Gothic interior.
Person
Dirk Vander Kooij
Dirk Vander Kooij develops furniture alongside the tools that make it. Process leaves a visible character in printed chairs and pressed tables.
Design
Ditzel’s upholstered landscapes
Explore Nanna Ditzel’s upholstered landscapes and Hallingdal textile: furniture that lets the body choose its own place in a room.
Design
Do Hit chair
Marijn van der Poll’s Do Hit gives the owner a role in its final form. Museum records distinguish the 2000 design from the later shaping of individual steel examples.
Person
Dorothy Liebes
Discover how Dorothy Liebes used reeds, coloured yarn and metallic threads to change the light in a room, and how her woven experiments reached industry.
Design
Dragon bench
Joris Laarman’s Dragon Bench explores robotic metal deposition through an open steel lattice. Museum records distinguish its 2014 prototype from later, differently catalogued examples.
Historic object
Dressing table 19.66
A compact London dressing table by Seddon, Sons and Shackleton organises a mirror, cupboards, containers and legroom around the person sitting before it.
Historic object
Drop-leaf Dining Table 19.13.2
A Baltimore dining table divides into two demilune sections. See how hinged leaves let one piece of dining furniture occupy a room in several different ways.
Design
Eames DCW
See how Charles and Ray Eames turned the limits of moulded plywood into DCW’s separate seat and back, joined through resilient rubber mounts.
Design
Eames moulded shell chairs
How Charles and Ray Eames developed a family of moulded shell chairs, why one seat can use different bases, and how early fibreglass differs from later plastics.
Design
EarChair
The EarChair extends its upholstered sides to suggest a small conversational place. Its direction matters as much as its footprint.
Design
East River Chair
Hella Jongerius’s East River Chair gives fabric, leather, wood and metal distinct roles. Its colour differences help the parts remain legible.
Design
Eclisse lamp
Turn the inner shade of Vico Magistretti’s Eclisse lamp and discover a simple light-control idea linked to the dark lantern in Les Misérables.
Design
Egg Chair
See how Arne Jacobsen's 1958 Egg Chair used a padded moulded shell to create privacy, focus and small social enclaves inside the SAS Royal Hotel lobby.
Historic object
Egyptian Folding Stool 12.182.58
Look through the leather and crossed frame of Egyptian Folding Stool 12.182.58 to see how portable geometry could also become a visible language of dignity and office.
Person
Eileen Gray
Meet Eileen Gray through a pivoting lacquer screen and the small decisions about privacy, movement and furniture inside Villa E-1027.
Design
Elling sideboard
The Elling sideboard separates rails, drawers and doors into a visible framework. Rietveld’s 1919 design has a history of loss, reconstruction and later production.
Person
Émile Gallé
Look at Gallé’s furniture through the Ombellifères cabinet, where wood grain, marquetry and carved growth turn botanical observation into form.