Knoll Armchairs
Mid-century modern design in America wouldn’t look the way it does without Knoll. The company’s acclaimed seating — lounge chairs, armchairs, office chairs and other furnishings created by a who’s who of designers and by Knoll’s pioneering cofounder, Florence Knoll (1917–2019) — helped define high-rise corporate culture and was rapidly adopted for use in living rooms, where it endures as a timeless favorite all over the world.
“Many of the designs that he had at that time were ones that I did not approve of,” Florence Knoll once recalled of her German-born husband, Hans Knoll (1914–55), the son of German modernist furniture manufacturer Walter Knoll. A native of Michigan, Florence already had a world-class immersion in design when she met Hans. Orphaned at age 12, she was enrolled at Kingswood School, part of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, which became the go-to school for legends of mid-century design. Florence became very close with Cranbrook head Eliel Saarinen, his wife and their son, Eero. She later studied with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and worked for Marcel Breuer and Bauhaus school founder Walter Gropius. When Florence married Hans in 1946, he had been at work since 1938 on his own eponymous furniture line in New York City.
With Florence’s design acumen, the Knolls turned the company into a powerhouse of modernist design. The Knoll Planning Unit, created by Florence in the mid-1940s, designed office spaces for the likes of GM and CBS, helping to define the postwar corporate aesthetic. The department’s small team designed furniture with practicality, efficiency and sleekness in mind, attributes that clearly define furnishings such as Eero Saarinen’s sculptural Executive chair, which was introduced in 1948 as the Model 72 and used for the General Motors Technical Center in Warren, Michigan. (The armed version, which followed in 1950, was also specified for the campus, an architectural project of Saarinen’s.) This seating, as well as pieces designed by Florence initially for commercial clients, soon became desirable for apartments and houses.
Knoll collaborated with an all-star cast of designers, including Saarinen, whose Womb chair arose from Florence’s request for “a chair that was like a basket full of pillows.” The catalogue includes some of the century’s most recognizable forms: Saarinen’s Tulip chairs, Harry Bertoia’s wire-lattice Diamond chair, the Cyclone table by artist Isamu Noguchi and pieces by Massimo and Lella Vignelli, Jens Risom, Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who granted Knoll exclusive permission to produce his designs. The manufacturer continues to produce the only authorized version of the elegant and oft-copied Barcelona chair, which Mies created in collaboration with designer Lilly Reich, his creative and romantic partner.
By 1950 — when production for Knoll was moved to East Greenville, Pennsylvania — more than one third of the designs in the company’s portfolio were Florence’s own. She thought of her furniture as “meat and potatoes,” mere practicality. “People ask me if I am a furniture designer,” she once said. “I am not. . . . I designed the fill-in pieces that no one else was doing.” But decades later, her own designs, like the Florence Knoll sofa, with its clean architectural lines, and her Bauhaus-inspired Lounge chair, are icons in their own right.
In 2021, Knoll was acquired by Herman Miller, another legendary American furniture manufacturer that turned a number of designers into mid-century household names. The combined company intends to operate under the name MillerKnoll.
Find a collection of vintage Knoll dining chairs, sofas and other seating on 1stDibs.
1980s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal, Chrome
1980s American International Style Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Steel, Chrome
1960s Belgian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
1980s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Stainless Steel
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Steel
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Carrara Marble, Aluminum
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Steel, Stainless Steel
1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Fabric, Maple
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
Mid-20th Century Italian Bauhaus Knoll Armchairs
Stainless Steel, Chrome
Late 20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Knoll Armchairs
Bamboo
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Upholstery, Wood
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal, Aluminum
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Steel, Chrome
1980s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Knoll Armchairs
Steel
1960s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
1970s Danish Scandinavian Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Bentwood
1970s German Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Leather, Bentwood
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Stainless Steel
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal, Chrome
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Leather
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Knoll Armchairs
Fabric, Teak
1980s American Post-Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Steel
1970s European Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Steel, Chrome
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Steel
1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
1960s Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Stainless Steel
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
Late 20th Century Italian Post-Modern Knoll Armchairs
Metal
1970s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Stainless Steel
1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
2010s American Bauhaus Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Knoll Armchairs
Metal, Steel
1950s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal, Chrome
20th Century German Expressionist Knoll Armchairs
Chrome
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Knoll Armchairs
Stainless Steel, Nickel
1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Fabric, Maple
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Knoll Armchairs
Metal
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Knoll Armchairs
Metal
1960s European Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Leather, Walnut
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Knoll Armchairs
Leather, Maple
1960s German Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Metal
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Knoll Armchairs
Maple
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Knoll Armchairs
Maple
1950s Belgian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome, Nickel
1950s Mid-Century Modern Vintage Knoll Armchairs
Chrome