Parzinger, the son of a well known sculptor, studied design at the Munich School of Arts and Crafts, where he was trained in the mediums of ceramic, glass, metal, and wood. Also active as a graphic designer, Parzinger's entry in a 1932 poster competition sponsored by a German steamship company won first place—a free passage to New York. The trip would be a formative experience; when the Nazis rose to power in Germany shortly thereafter, Parzinger left his native country to settle permanently in the United States.

He first found work at Rena Rosenthal's Madison Avenue shop, where he mostly designed objects in brass, crystal, and glass, but also some furniture. By 1939, he had established a company of his own, Parzinger, Inc., later known Parzinger Originals, which quickly established a reputation for restrained, though luxurious furniture. Parzinger—like his colleagues Edward Wormley and T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings—practiced a non-doctrinaire, eclectic modernism. His pieces found an eager audience among those consumers for whom Bauhaus-type design was too severe. Page 2 >