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You won’t find any of these furnishings in Canadian Tire. The Eames Lounger and Barcelona Chair may have become stalwarts of mid-century furniture design but there’s a whole other tier above these popular favorites. Designers T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings (above left), Tommy Parzinger (centre) and Vladimir Kagan (right) are but three of the visionary craftspeople featured in Rizzoli’s sumptuous Modern Americana.

New York decorative arts expert Todd Merrill and Julie Iovine have produced a luxurious and well-researched volume about some of America’s most elite furniture makers. Not that they were all American; some, like Kagan, George Nakashima and Paul Laszlo came from abroad with their innovative perspectives.

The survey begins by examining the notion of furniture as art from craftsmen — a moniker many of these designers preferred — who produced one-of-a-kind pieces. Artists like Arthur Espenet Carpenter and Sam Maloof drew their inspiration from the materials, they “followed the wood,” whereas people like J.B. Bunk culled their vision from primitive shapes and Wendell Castle paid homage to the sweep and swirl of Art Nouveau. The work cataloged here in Modern Americana — that’s a Hollis Jones suite above — is magnificent and now commands sky-high prices at auction.

The book also chronicles a crop of furniture designers who worked with small manufacturers like Dunbar, Baker and Widdicomb, to craft exclusive pieces for the rich and famous of the post-war era. Finally, the book salutes those who Merrill deems to be not just furniture designers but environmental designers, men of vision like Ed Wormley, Billy Haines and Paul Laszlo. You definitely see their influences in great interiors of today.

Merrill’s experience as a dealer of high-end furnishings informs his work as an editor and contributor. The texts are tightly woven mini-bios with strong points of view; the photos a lavish mix of contemporary and historical shots. As the subtitle says, the tome is a trip from “High Craft to High Glam.”

Photos courtesy of Rizzoli New York. Below left, a Harvey Probber lounge chair and right, a trio of Billy Haines slipper chairs.