Laverne Originals Catalog (A B C D E F)

Early catalog for Laverne Originals, the modern design company founded by Estelle and Erwine Laverne in 1938. From its modest origins producing primarily wallpapers and textiles, Laverne (eventually Laverne International) added furniture and accessories, becoming one of the most accomplished and acclaimed design frms of the 1950’s and 1960’s. The Laverne showroom of this period was rivaled only by the Knoll showrooms as paragons of abstract, minimalist mid-century chic. The present catalog embodies and prefigures Laverne’s unique blend of design, interior design, and graphic design. Along with the successful line of Irwin’s Marbalia wallpapers, the catalog showcases fabric and wallpaper designs by a well-edited stable of artists and designers: Ray Komai, Alvin Lustig, Juliet and Gyorgy Kepes, Zahara Schatz, and Alexander Calder, plus two pages of early furniture designs in wood, metal, and fiber by the architects William Katavolos, Ross Little, and Douglas Kelley. These furniture designs garnered Good Design attention, and preceded by several years the iconic steel and leather T-chair and the New York seating group by the same for Laverne. 4to (8.5” x 11”), printed wrappers, 24 saddle-stitched pages with 58 b/w images. Undated but circa 1951. Minor rubbing, soiling, and edge bumping to wrappers, with a red stamp from Architects Sample and a small ink mark on the upper right of the front cover. Otherwise a clean and fresh example.