Broyhill Brasilia Furniture History Deep Dive

Updated August 2, 2024

Broyhill Brasilia is highly collectible and sought after.  But I believe most people do not know much about its background.  I was really intrigued to find out that it was presented at the 1962 Seattle World's fair which was also when the Seattle Space Needle was first open to the public.  This world's fair lasted 6 months and put Seattle on the map!  The fair was held at a time when the United States was in the space race with the Soviet Union and it was a chance for the US to show off its innovation and wealth.

There is a whole documentary on YouTube that I plan to watch sometime, because I love this kind of thing.

Honestly, there was a lot of info about Broyhill Brasilia online, because it is so popular, but there is one article that stands out.  Kyle Davis wrote a piece called "Who Really Designed Broyhill Brasilia?"  And Kyle, I wish your website that you mentioned "Mid Century Spot" was still in existence because you obviously did some serious research! But apparently the website is no more and I couldn't locate Kyle online elsewhere.

Oscar Niemeyer lived to be 104! Photo from Architectural Review

Kyle wanted to set the record straight that Oscar Niemeyer, who designed the buildings of Brazil's new capital just a few years prior to the unveiling of the furniture in question, was NOT also the designer of Broyhill Brasilia.  But, I mean, it is understandable that people might be confused.  Take a look at some of the buildings.  You can't deny the swooping, curving style doesn't look like a copy and paste from buildings to furniture.

Catedral Metropolitana de Brasilia

Photo from Good Eye Gallery

A really smart thing that Kyle did was to look at Broyhill patents to find the name of a possible designer.  Nebraska might have played an important part in this story if the patent of Jerome S. Tomaskiewicz from Millard, Nebraska for a very Brasilia looking headboard actually proved he was the designer.  But alas, Nebraska, he is not the designer.  Still a cool fact.

Image from Google Patents

Kyle was able to locate the patents for most of the recognizable elements of Broyhill Brasilia designs and they were credited to a Melbourne F. Smith, Jr.  He noted that there was a possibility that Melbourne could have been a lawyer for Broyhill, but he was noted on the patents in a similar fashion to other notable designers like Adrian Pearsall.

Patent with Melbourne F. Smith, Jr. noted

So mystery solved?  Perhaps.  But scrolling through the comment section of his article on Medium a Hunt Broyhill commented that his father, Paul Broyhill, who was 94 years old in 2016, was the true designer.  Hunt said that Paul came up with the "inspiration and creativity" and Melbourne put the designs on paper.

Hunt Broyhill's comment on the Medium article

Hunt, are you still out there?  Is Paul Broyhill still alive?  Did anyone interview him?  I am interested to know more about this story.

Thanks for reading guys!