Original Eero Aarnio Bubble Chair, Adelta, Finland
View Similar Items
Original Eero Aarnio Bubble Chair, Adelta, Finland
About the Item
- Creator:Adelta (Manufacturer),Eero Aarnio (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 41 in (104.14 cm)Width: 41 in (104.14 cm)Depth: 31 in (78.74 cm)Seat Height: 17 in (43.18 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 2000s
- Condition:Few faint scratches to acrylic. No wear at all to the leather. This chair was never used.
- Seller Location:Kansas City, MO
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU105702882992
Eero Aarnio
“I always look ahead, never back,” Finnish design legend Eero Aarnio has been quoted as saying. A leading innovator of modern furniture design, Aarnio has long embraced a bold, playful, confident and colorful style several steps ahead of his time.
For his 1954 entrance test for the Institute of Industrial Arts in Helsinki, Aarnio created a whimsical painting of a man reading a newspaper in a red, curved chair whose silhouette foreshadowed Aarnio’s Ball chair of 1963. That spherical seat skyrocketed him to design fame, and decades later, it is still recognized as one of the world’s most futuristic designs.
Born in 1932 to a house painter and a seamstress, Aarnio has always had a cheerful disposition and an independent spirit. He went his own way early on: After just two years at Asko, the big Scandinavian furniture company that originally produced his Ball chair, Aarnio established his own studio in 1962.
Over the next decade, the young visionary made an indelible mark on the world. Open-minded and entrepreneurial, Aarnio embraced the aesthetics, materials and technologies of the Swinging Sixties, working with a new generation of plastics and molding them into fluid, organically shaped, brightly hued forms.
Introduced at the 1966 Cologne Furniture Fair, the pod-like fiberglass Ball chair soon adorned the homes of movie stars and royalty, graced magazine covers around the world and was featured in films and ads. The groundbreaking seat originally came in orange, white, black, yellow and red and could be ordered with a telephone installed in it. Yet this designer of the future, as he was known in the 1960s, has always insisted that he didn’t deliberately seek to be associated with the decade’s sci-fi aesthetic.
“I had no intention to create either pop or Space Age design — as many people label my work,” Aarnio declares in one of the essays included in Eero Aarnio — Designer of Colour and Joy, a book jointly created by the Design Museum and publisher WSOY to accompany 2016’s “Eero Aarnio” exhibition.
The show featured a number of Aarnio’s objects, including his iconic Ball, Pastil (1967), Bubble (1968), Tomato (1971) and Pony (1973) chairs. These were joined by lesser-known seating and other objects like the rattan Juttujakkara, or mushroom, stool (1960); the sculptural Double Bubble lamp (2000), with which Aarnio first explored the possibilities of rotation-cast plastic; and the three-legged Rocket (1995) and Baby Rocket (2006) stools, both parts of a collection produced by Artek after Tom Dixon, the company’s creative director from 2004 to 2009, discovered the original piece in Aarnio’s kitchen.
“Aarnio expanded the whole idea of what constitutes furniture,” explained Suvi Saloniemi, the Design Museum’s chief curator. “His significance as a designer is crystallized in the liberation of form that he has introduced by discovering the properties of plastic as the material of a designer. His furniture is sculpture-like and eye-catching, but the pieces are always utilitarian at the same time.”
Find an extraordinary range of vintage Eero Aarnio chairs, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- Set of Four 1940s Tubular Chrome Chairs in Original Oxblood Leather like VinylLocated in Kansas City, MOSet of 4 tubular chrome chairs, two with arms, two side chairs. We are not sure of the designer and manufacturer but these are similar to KEM Weber, Troy Sunshade. Lloyd, and Gilbert...Category
Vintage 1940s American Machine Age Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Rare Pair of Red Hans Wegner Arm Chairs for Hansen and Son. Original. Signed.By Hans J. WegnerLocated in Kansas City, MOVery rare and desirable pair of red side chairs designed by Hans Wegner for Hansen and Son, Denmark, 1950s. These are in very good completely origin...Category
Vintage 1950s Danish Scandinavian Modern Armchairs
MaterialsWood
- Charles Pollockk Penelope Stacking or Stack ChairsBy Anonima Castelli, Charles PollockLocated in Kansas City, MOCharles Pollock (Pollack) for Castelli sturdy wire mesh and chromed steel stacking chairs with arms. We took each of these chairs apart and replaced the inner screws that break with ...Category
Vintage 1980s European Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Wendell Castle ChairsBy Wendell CastleLocated in Kansas City, MOWendell castle chairs. Price is for each. Purple chair dimensions: 25 in. D x 20 in. W x 33 in. H x 19 in. Seat heightCategory
1990s American Modern Chairs
MaterialsBrass, Steel
$6,500 / item - Pair of Estelle and Erwine Laverne Lily Chairs, Beautifully RestoredBy Erwine & Estelle Laverne, Laverne InternationalLocated in Kansas City, MOExceptional matched pair of tulip chairs designed by Estelle and Erwine Laverne. These early original examples have been expertly restored a...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsIron
- Ten Rosewood Danish Modern Dining Chairs, Blue Fabric, Labels on Several ChairsLocated in Kansas City, MOSet of 10 Danish modern dining chairs in Brazilian rosewood and new blue upholstery. Some slight wear in the form of small nicks and dents in the chair frames but no significant dist...Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery, Rosewood
- Tipi Chair by Eero Aarnio for AdeltaBy Adelta, Eero AarnioLocated in Dorchester, MACreated in 2002 by the Finnish designer Eero Aarnio for the German manufacturer Adelta, the Tipi Chair is an imaginative interpretation of what might consti...Category
Early 2000s German Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Eero Aarnio Suspended Lucite Bubble ChairBy Eero AarnioLocated in Dallas, TXEero Aarnio designed the original Bubble chair in 1968 while residing in Finland. The industrial modernist design of the chair provides for a seating exp...Category
Late 20th Century Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Modern Bubble Ball Chair by Eero AarnioBy Eero AarnioLocated in Napa, CA20th Century modern ball lounge chair. The bubble chair was originally designed in 1968 by Eero Aarnio. Features a modern futuristic pod hang...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Finnish Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Vintage Pair of Ball Chairs in the Design of Eero AarnioBy Eero Aarnio, AdeltaLocated in Dallas, TXPair of vintage white swivel ball chairs designed by Eero Aarnio. The ball chair was designed in 1963 and debuted at the Cologne Furniture Fair in 1...Category
Late 20th Century Swivel Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Eero Aarnio 4 Chairs Model Flamingo for Asko Finland Marked, 1970sBy Eero AarnioLocated in Paris, FRA set of 4 Iconic "Flamingo" chairs by Eero Arnio for Asko Finland White painted wood , some paint chips see photos. Vintage yellow fabric. Bo...Category
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsWood
- Eero Aarnio 4 Chairs Model Flamingo for Asko Finland Marked, 1970sBy Eero AarnioLocated in Paris, FRA set of 4 iconic "flamingo" chairs by Eero Arnio for Asko Finland. White lacquered wood with brown velvet. Born in Helsinki in 1932 Eero Aarnio studied interior and industrial des...Category
Mid-20th Century Finnish Mid-Century Modern Chairs
MaterialsWood, Lacquer
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
The 21 Most Popular Mid-Century Modern Chairs
You know the designs, now get the stories about how they came to be.
The Ball Chair, Eero Aarnio’s Space Age Masterpiece, Was Almost Never Made
Now considered emblematic of 1960s mod aesthetics, the Finnish designer's famous creation was far from an overnight success.