Irving Richards

Irving Richards, founder of Raymor, was one of the most influential figures in mid-late 20th Century design, at the cutting edge of popular American tastes.
His first business was a bookshop on Broadway, specializing in rare and first edition books: it had such a success he could travel to Paris to visit the Salon d’Automne art and design fair, his ‘Damascus moment’, as he said. During the Depression, he worked for Lightolier, who sent him several times to Europe, where he set interesting relationships with interesting design realities. This led him to found, with Russel Wright, Raymor, an import company and distributor selling objects designed abroad, often in Italy. He left an enormous and diverse legacy across Europe and the US for this work.

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