{"product_id":"mid-century-modern-magazine-and-record-rack-two-bay-open-frame-with-splayed-tapered-legs-and-brass-ferrules-c-1955-1970","title":"Mid-Century Modern Magazine and Record Rack, Two-Bay Open Frame with Splayed Tapered Legs and Brass Ferrules, c. 1955–1970","description":"\u003ch3\u003eThe Piece\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn open two-bay rack built from almost nothing: two upright end panels, four horizontal rails, and a center divider, standing on four splayed legs. There is no back, no bottom you cannot see through, and no ornament anywhere on it. The design works entirely by proportion and by the rhythm of the gaps between the rails, which is the harder way to make furniture and the reason this still looks current.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe end panels are cut from a wood with a soft rippled figure, finished in a warm honey amber that goes almost golden where the light crosses it. Against that, the center divider and the legs are stained a deep walnut brown — a deliberate two-tone contrast, and the single design decision that gives the piece its whole character. The divider is cut with an angled shoulder rather than a square one, so it reads as a shape rather than a board.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe legs are the detail worth stopping on. Each is turned to a slim cone, splayed outward, stained dark, and finished with a polished brass ferrule at the floor. They mount on stamped metal plates screwed up into the underside, which is exactly how this generation of furniture was built — the leg system was engineered separately from the case and bolted on.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Provenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe splayed tapered leg with a brass foot, mounted on a stamped metal plate, is one of the most reliable postwar dating markers in American furniture. The system arrived with the shift to lighter, off-the-floor case goods after the Second World War, spread through the mid-fifties, and was standard by the early sixties. It let a factory build a simple box and turn it into something that appeared to float. Once you have seen the metal mounting plate, you know roughly when you are.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe form belongs to a specific moment in the American living room. Records and magazines both arrived in volume in the fifties, both were awkward to store, and neither belonged in a cabinet where you could not see the spines. The open two-bay rack solved it by standing beside a chair, holding everything upright and visible, and taking up almost no floor. Twelve-inch LPs stand in it comfortably; so do oversized art books, sheet music, and folded newspapers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe underside carries a stencilled letter B. Single-letter marks like this are factory assembly or batch codes — a line worker's shorthand for which run or which station a part came from — not a maker's mark. There is no label, brand, or stamp identifying the manufacturer, and we are not going to attach a name to it on the strength of a leg style that a hundred companies used.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProduct Details\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003ctable border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"8\" cellspacing=\"0\"\u003e\n\u003cthead\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\"\u003eField\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003cth align=\"left\"\u003eDetail\u003c\/th\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/thead\u003e\n\u003ctbody\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eObject\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMagazine and record rack, open two-bay frame\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOrigin\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eUnattributed. American, in the postwar idiom; no maker's label or brand is present.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eForm\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eTwo upright end panels joined by four horizontal rails with a shaped center divider, creating two open bays; raised on four splayed tapered legs with brass ferrules, mounted on stamped metal plates\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMaterial\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eFigured hardwood in a honey amber finish with walnut-stained divider and legs; brass ferrules; unfinished plywood underside\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eMarks\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eStencilled letter B to the underside — a factory batch or assembly code, not a maker's mark\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eEra\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003ec. 1955–1970\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eCondition\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eVery good. The frame is square and rigid with no racking, all four legs are original and securely mounted, and the brass ferrules are intact with a warm unpolished patina. The finish is clean and even across both tones. There is minor edge chipping to the lower corner of one end panel and light handling marks consistent with use. Condition Guaranteed.\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eAvailability\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003ctd\u003eOne of a Kind — 1 Available\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/tbody\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eWhy It Belongs in Your Home\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePut it beside a chair and it does one job perfectly: it holds the things you are actually reading or playing, upright and in reach, without hiding them. Records stand where you can flip through them, which is the entire point of owning records. Magazines stop sliding off the coffee table. Large-format art books, which fit nowhere else, fit here.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt also earns a spot where nothing else quite works — the gap beside a sofa, the wall under a window, the end of a hallway. The open frame means it takes up visual space without taking up visible space, and the brass feet catch enough light to read as a considered object rather than storage. A note on care: the finish is original, so treat it gently. Dust it dry, wipe spills immediately, and keep it out of direct sun, which will pull the amber toward orange over time. Leave the brass alone — the soft patina is correct, and polishing it bright is the fastest way to make a sixty-year-old piece look like a reproduction.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Viridian Eclection","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48008974336105,"sku":null,"price":378.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0651\/0093\/9369\/files\/IMG_3541.jpg?v=1788860874","url":"https:\/\/viridianeclection.com\/products\/mid-century-modern-magazine-and-record-rack-two-bay-open-frame-with-splayed-tapered-legs-and-brass-ferrules-c-1955-1970","provider":"Viridian Eclection","version":"1.0","type":"link"}