Harry Bertoia, Slat Bench 1952 Knoll International, Early Edition, "Western K"
View Similar Items
Harry Bertoia, Slat Bench 1952 Knoll International, Early Edition, "Western K"
About the Item
- Creator:Harry Bertoia (Designer),Knoll (Manufacturer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 15.16 in (38.5 cm)Width: 66.15 in (168 cm)Depth: 18.51 in (47 cm)Seat Height: 15.16 in (38.5 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1952
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Munster, DE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU1391217914212
Bertoia Bench
Simple, straightforward and unassuming in its clever design, the Bertoia bench is a hallmark mid-century modern piece. Harry Bertoia (1915–78) was an Italian-American sculptor, jewelry designer and furniture maker who developed his famous bench for Knoll in 1952. Made of slatted wood set atop a chrome-plated welded steel frame, the bench was Bertoia’s first product for Knoll, who granted him creative freedom when he joined the company’s studio in 1950. While the piece does not represent Bertoia’s now-famous signature wire-lattice style, it does hint at the sculptural quality that characterizes all of his work.
Before arriving at Knoll, Bertoia studied painting at Cranbrook Academy of Art. He eventually became a faculty member there, working alongside Eliel Saarinen, Walter Gropius and others. Bertoia eventually left the academy for California to help Charles and Ray Eames perfect the design of an award-winning chair that Charles had worked on with Eero Saarinen while at Cranbrook. It was thanks to Bertoia’s breakthrough welding contributions and innovations with plywood that cleared a path to mass production for both the chair and other wood-laminate furniture. However, the Eameses failed to credit Bertoia once the chair hit the market, thus ending the trio’s working relationship. A few years later, Bertoia joined the Knoll studio at the behest of his former Cranbrook classmate, Florence Knoll, and there he produced the bench as well as the beloved Diamond chair. Sculptural and versatile, the Bertoia bench can also be used as a coffee table. It is still manufactured by Knoll today.
Harry Bertoia
Sculptor, furniture and jewelry designer, graphic artist and metalsmith, Harry Bertoia was one of the great cross-disciplinarians of 20th-century art and design and a central figure in American modernism. Among furniture aficionados he is known for the wire-lattice Diamond chair (and its variants such as the tall-backed Bird chair) designed for Knoll Inc. and first released in 1952. As an artist, Bertoia is revered for a style that was his alone. Bertoia’s metal sculptures are by turns expressive and austere, powerful and subtle, intimate in scale and monumental. All embody a tension between the intricacy and precision of Bertoia’s forms and the raw strength of his materials: steel, brass, bronze and copper.
Fortune seemed to guide Bertoia’s artistic development. Born in northeastern Italy, Bertoia immigrated to the United States at age 15, joining an older brother in Detroit. He studied drawing and metalworking in the gifted student program at Cass Technical High School. Recognition led to awards that culminated, in 1937, in a teaching scholarship to attend the Cranbrook Academy of Art in suburban Bloomfield Hills, one of the great crucibles of modernism in America. There, Bertoia made friendships — with architect Eero Saarinen, designers Charles and Ray Eames and Florence Schust Knoll and others — that shaped the course of his life. He taught metalworking at Cranbrook, and when materials rationing during World War II limited the availability of metals, Bertoia focused on jewelry design. He also experimented with monotype printmaking, and 19 of his earliest efforts were bought by the Guggenheim Museum.
In 1943, he left Cranbrook to work in California with the Eameses, helping them develop their now-famed plywood furniture. (Bertoia received scant credit.) Late in that decade, Florence and Hans Knoll persuaded him to move east and join Knoll Inc. His chairs became, and remain, perennial bestsellers. Royalties allowed Bertoia to devote himself full-time to metal sculpture, a medium he began to explore in earnest in 1947.
By the early 1950s Bertoia was receiving commissions for large-scale works from architects — the first came via Saarinen — as he refined his aesthetic vocabulary into two distinct skeins. One comprises his “sounding sculptures” — gongs and “Sonambient” groupings of rods that strike together and chime when touched by hand or by the wind. The other genre encompasses Bertoia’s naturalistic works: abstract sculptures that suggest bushes, flower petals, leaves, dandelions or sprays of grass. As you will see on these pages, Harry Bertoia was truly unique; his art and designs manifest a wholly singular combination of delicacy and strength.
- Florence Knoll Sideboard Wall Mounted 1952 Seagrass Teak by Knoll InternationalBy Florence Knoll, KnollLocated in Munster, NRWExtremely rare wall-hung sideboard (Mod°123) from 1952, designed by Florence Knoll for Knoll International - this version was produced in 1952 in a small edition by Knoll in Stuttgar...Category
Vintage 1950s German Mid-Century Modern Sideboards
MaterialsSeagrass, Teak
- Early Eero Saarinen Office Desk Chair for Knoll InternationalBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Munster, NRWEero Saarinen office desk dhair for Knoll International. The chair is in original leather and stainless steel in good condition. It is adjustable in height and has been modified on t...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Office Chairs and Desk Chairs
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Florence Knoll Sideboard Wall Bar Unit Teak 1954 Knoll International Mid CenturyBy Florence Knoll, KnollLocated in Munster, NRWWall mounted sideboard unit by Florence Knoll, made by Knoll International, Stuttgart in 1954. Rare opportunity to acquire an original Knoll Internat...Category
Vintage 1950s German Mid-Century Modern Shelves
MaterialsTeak
- Barcelona Table Mies van der Rohe 1929 Knoll International Steel Chrome BauhausBy Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, KnollLocated in Munster, NRWKnoll Barcelona Coffee Table - Barcelona Coffee Table by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The so-called Barcelona Coffee Table by Knoll Internat...Category
Vintage 1920s German Bauhaus Sofa Tables
MaterialsSteel, Chrome
- Cini Boeri - Lunario Glass Coffee Table, 1970 Knoll Interantional, Mid CenturyBy Cini Boeri, KnollLocated in Munster, NRWDesigned by Maria Cristina Mariani "Cini" Boeri in 1970 for Knoll, this table was a result of the aftermath of WWII. Featuring a cleared, tempered, and polished oval base, its sim...Category
Vintage 1970s German Mid-Century Modern Sofa Tables
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Jens Risom, Vostra Easy Lounge Chair, Design 1941 for Walter Knoll, GermanyBy Knoll, Jens Risom, Walter KnollLocated in Munster, NRWJens Risom for Walter Knoll - Easychair Vostra, 1941 Design from 1941 - model of the 50s, beech frame. This Easychair comes from the private property of an art dealer in Cologne,...Category
Vintage 1940s German Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsBeech
- Beautiful Midcentury Slat Bench by Harry Bertoia for Knoll, USA, 1950sBy Knoll, Harry BertoiaLocated in Vienna, ATA beautiful modernist ashwood slat bench with an iron base from the 1950s. Designed by Harry Bertoia for Knoll. Restored, in very good condition. The bench also makes a great coffee ...Category
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsIron
- Slat Bench by Harry Bertoia for KnollBy Knoll, Harry BertoiaLocated in Chicago, ILc. 1970s. Wood slat bench with metal legs. Tagged.Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsMetal
- Mid-Century Slat Bench by Harry Bertoia for KnollBy Harry Bertoia, KnollLocated in BROOKLYN, NYWonderful mid-century slat bench or coffee table by Harry Bertoia for Knoll, 1950s. Stained ash. Early original Bowtie Label (Knoll Associates) that predates Knoll International. Has...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsSteel
- Harry Bertoia Bench 400 Knoll International Mid Century Coffee TableBy Harry Bertoia, KnollLocated in Berlin, BEThis design by Harry Bertoia for Hans and Florence Knoll is an icon of mid-century modern design. Straightforward and simple but still unmistakable. The base has been kept in origina...Category
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsSteel, Chrome
- Harry Bertoia Early Solid Rosewood Slat Bench1951 First Year ProductionBy Knoll, Harry BertoiaLocated in Chicago, ILHarry Bertoia early solid rosewood slat bench 1951 first year production, original white painted base, Oil finish. Retains old label on underside [Knoll...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsRosewood
- Harry Bertoia, Bench Model 400By Harry Bertoia, KnollLocated in Firenze, ITHarry Bertoia Bench Model 400 Bench model 400 designed by Harry Bertoia, metal legs and wooden slatted seat. Manufactured by Knoll International, USA, late 1950s Bibliography: S. Ro...Category
Vintage 1950s Benches
MaterialsMetal