Vintage Harry Bertoia for Knoll Slat Bench Model 400
View Similar Items
Vintage Harry Bertoia for Knoll Slat Bench Model 400
About the Item
- Creator:Knoll (Manufacturer),Harry Bertoia (Designer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 14.76 in (37.5 cm)Width: 65.74 in (166.98 cm)Depth: 18.5 in (46.99 cm)Seat Height: 14.76 in (37.5 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1975
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses. Some wear to the wooden slats. Loss of color due to aging and use in some parts.
- Seller Location:Vienna, AT
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU993511968111
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.
- Petite Double Bench Banquette Attributed Maurizio Tempestini, circa 1940By Maurizio TempestiniLocated in Vienna, ATElegant petite long banquette attributed to Maurizio Tempestini, Italy circa 1940 Original yellow silk upholstery with French motive flower design, which is in very good condition w...Category
Vintage 1940s Italian Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsBrass
- Matteo Thun Tufted Black Leather Banquettes (2 pieces) Bench Materassi, WittmannBy Matteo Thun, Karl WittmannLocated in Vienna, AT80” tufted black leather banquette or sofa-bench by Matteo Thun for Wittmann, Austria, designed and produced 1993 - custom made. Dimensions are: 79.5...Category
1990s Austrian Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsLeather, Wood
- Eero Saarinen Marble Side Table for Knoll, 1960By Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Vienna, ATOriginal side table with a marble top by Saarinen for Knoll International, mid century Early version, marked Knoll International Elegant side table designed by the architect E...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsMarble, Aluminum
- Clay Michie for Knoll International Articulating No. 8 Table LampBy Knoll, Clay MichieLocated in Vienna, ATClassic Clay Michie for Knoll International Articulating No. 8 table lamp designed in 1958. Featuring a Chrome swing arm, perforated black enamel shade with (7...Category
Vintage 1920s German Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
MaterialsBrass
- Westside Armchairs by Ettore Sottsass for Knoll, 1983 Post Modern OriginalBy Ettore Sottsass, KnollLocated in Vienna, ATRare pair of vintage 'Westside' armchairs by Ettore Sottsass for Knoll, 1983 in great condition Iconic west side designed by Ettore Sottsass in 1983. Stylish and very comfortable oversized chairs in 3 different shades of red and violet on heavy enameled steel feet. The lounge chairs still have their original upholstery which is astonishingly well preserved. Overall they are in good to very good original condition with no major flaws and ready to use. Labelled Knoll at the bottom. Dimensions are H.30.7" x W.38.2 x D.29.52". Seating height is 14.17 cm. Provenance: it derives from a Villa in Vienna. These will sell as a pair only and will ship crated and internationally. We do offer white glove service in NYC and LA. In 1983, two years after the founding of Memphis, Sottsass splintered off from his collective to partner with Knoll Studio, creating the Eastside and Westside collections. Inspired by his lifelong love of Viennese Biedermeier chairs, characterized by plush seats with clean lines and minimal adornment, the collection consisted of geometric sofas and lounge chairs in color-blocked upholsteries. In spite of his iconoclasm, Sottsass had a deep appreciation of ancient art and architecture—particularly Sumerian, Assyrian and Chinese—resulting in the decision to shoot the collection against the backdrop of the Great Pyramids of Giza.Category
Vintage 1980s Italian Post-Modern Club Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Lewis Butler Black and White Coffee Table Walnut Wood Base, Knoll, 1960By Knoll, Lewis Butler for KnollLocated in Vienna, ATCoffee table by Lewis Butler for Knoll International, 1960 featuring a black and white laminate segmented tabletop on a walnut base. It's in good condition with no major flaws. Measu...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsLaminate, Walnut
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Mid 20th Century Modern Model 400 Bench by Harry Bertoia for KnollBy Knoll, Harry BertoiaLocated in Brugge, BE1960s Model 400 USA Teak and steel 38.5cm high, 167cm wide, 47cm deep Born in Italy in 1915, Harry Bertoia became a prominent sculptor and furniture designer in the United Stat...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Benches
MaterialsSteel
- 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
- 1950s Harry Bertoia for Knoll Associates Model 400 Bench in Oak with Black BaseBy Knoll, Harry BertoiaLocated in Philadelphia, PAListed for sale is an iconic slatted oak bench designed by Harry Bertoia and produced by Knoll. It dates to circa 1952. This piece was constructed using solid oak wood for the top an...Category
Vintage 1950s American Modern Benches
MaterialsSteel