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Charlie Brown Lived in a World of Mid-Century Modern Furniture

Back when you could buy it for "peanuts"

By Rain Noe - August 30, 2023

in Furniture Design

Furniture pieces that we'd call Mid-Century Modern classics today, were just sitting in regular families' houses 70 years ago. There's a Peanuts cartoon strip from the '50s that drives this point home. Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty—quintessential middle-class American children—are sitting in a living room, listening to old records, including "Old Rockin' Chair's Got Me."

The punchline has a little more punch in color:

Charles M. Schulz didn't portray them precisely, but the chair at left is most certainly the Eames LCW.

In the corner, the Hardoy chair (colloquially referred to as the Butterfly or BKF Chair) designed by architects Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan and Jorge Ferrari Hardoy and briefly produced by Knoll.

And the piece at right probably references the Barwa lounge chair designed and produced by Edgar Bartolucci and John Waldheim.

Those pieces were designed, respectively, around 1940, 1946 and 1947. The comic strip above came out in 1953. So the question is, do you have any piece of furniture in your house today, that's from six to thirteen years old, that will look as good in 70 years' time?

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Arch Stanton

a year ago

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That's actually "Patty" in the featured Peanuts strip, not "Peppermint Patty" who was introduced later.

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Juan Cano

a year ago

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What's the lamp?

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- Eric Ludlum
  
  Juan Cano
  
  a year ago
  
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  Reply
  
  Maybe this one? https://pastchaptersstore.com/products/mid-century-modern-3-cone-atomic-floor-lamp
  
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