Newly Upholstered Daybed by Jens Risom for Walter Knoll 1950s in Leather
View Similar Items
Newly Upholstered Daybed by Jens Risom for Walter Knoll 1950s in Leather
About the Item
- Creator:Walter Knoll (Manufacturer),Jens Risom (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 25.99 in (66 cm)Width: 76.78 in (195 cm)Length: 25.99 in (66 cm)Seat Height: 17.72 in (45 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1950s
- Condition:
- Seller Location:Berlin, DE
- Reference Number:Seller: Cs.ob.RisomDaybed.m.1801a1stDibs: LU1591218345952
Jens Risom
The Danish-born Jens Risom brought the Scandinavian modern design sensibility to a wide audience in the United States. As the first designer for Knoll Inc., Risom introduced American buyers to the region’s enduring design values of simplicity, grace and craftsmanship.
Risom trained in furniture making at the Copenhagen School of Industrial Arts and Design under Ole Wanscher, alongside classmates Hans Wegner and Børge Mogensen. In 1939, a year after graduating from business school, Risom decided to move to the U.S.
While working for an interior designer in New York in 1941, he met Hans Knoll, and the businessman and the designer hit it off. They brought out their first line the next year, despite wartime materials restrictions. The signature piece — now a design icon — was a lounge chair with a striking, undulant birch frame and a seat made of webbed sub-military grade parachute straps. Risom was drafted into the army, and served as a translator under General George Patton. When he returned from the war, Risom clashed over furniture design ideals with his business partner’s new bride, Florence Knoll, the pioneering mid-century modernist who was schooled in the Bauhaus method, which favored furniture with strict, geometric metal frames. Risom then started his own company, Jens Risom Design.
In the course of his long career, Risom developed a stylistic vocabulary that was a reflection of the life of the man himself: his furniture has Danish warmth coupled with an American air of crisp efficiency. Vintage Risom chairs are almost instantly recognizable — the arms and seat backs are set at a distinctive angle that seems to invite people to sit back and relax, yet they know they can hop up in an instant, ready to go.
As you will see on these pages, Jens Risom is one of the great men of American modern design who made furniture that is unique and timeless.
Find a collection of vintage Jens Risom furniture on 1stDibs that includes lounge chairs, desks, coffee tables and more.
Walter Knoll
Inspired by the Bauhaus — founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius — Walter Knoll decided to bet big on modernism. He launched his eponymous German furniture maker in 1925, and the company has been going strong ever since.
Most design lovers are familiar with Knoll, the manufacturer of furniture by Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and other modernist giants. It was founded by Hans Knoll in 1941 and led after his death by his wife, Florence Knoll, the doyenne of postwar American office interiors. In recent years, the company has added collections by Maya Lin, Rem Koolhaas, Frank Gehry and David Adjaye, among others, and encouraged customers to do what some of them had been doing all along: use Knoll’s “office furniture” at home.
Fewer Americans are familiar with Walter Knoll, the company Hans’s father founded in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1925 and later moved to nearby Herrenberg. That company has existed in the shadow of the larger U.S.-based Knoll for decades.
Both companies descended from the German manufacturer of ornate leather goods established by Wilhelm Knoll in 1866. In 1907, Wilhelm’s sons, Willy and Walter, took over the father’s business and started producing leather club chairs. Five years later, the company introduced its Nestra line of stripped-down wood and leather seating, foreshadowing the family’s future innovations.
In 1925, when he was 50, Walter Knoll launched the Walter Knoll Company, which soon released the revolutionary Prodomo line of chairs, whose upholstered seats and backs are supported by tubular metal frames. Other lightweight Walter Knoll pieces were used in the passenger compartment of the Hindenburg zeppelin.
In 1927, Walter Knoll furnished five apartments designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe for the Weissenhof Estate, 21 prototypes of “workers’ housing of the future” constructed as part of an exhibition in Stuttgart. A decade later, Walter’s son Hans, then 24, traveled to the United States to market his father’s furniture and to make a new life for himself in the New World. But inspired by his encounters with Jens Risom — a Danish-born designer who furthered Scandinavian modernism in the United States — Hans broke away from Walter, creating Knoll Associates (now known simply as Knoll). Florence Schust (later to become Hans’s wife) joined him in the company in 1943, and soon they were working with mid-century modern icons such as Saarinen and Bertoia on new designs and licensing Mies’s Barcelona chair.
After the war, with his factories destroyed and labor and materials in short supply, Walter Knoll turned to Hans for help. Hans sent over several pieces from his Vostra line, designed by Risom. Walter replaced the web seats with upholstery and launched his version of the Vostra at the New Living exhibition in Cologne in 1949. It became hugely successful, persuading many Germans still accustomed to traditional furniture to give modernism a go.
Walter Knoll retired in 1964, but his namesake firm continued growing in Germany. Just like the American Knoll, Walter Knoll has found that some customers want to use pieces originally meant as office furniture in their houses. In fact, these pieces give living and dining rooms a crispness that almost no residential furniture can match.
Find vintage Walter Knoll lounge chairs, sofas, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- Newly Upholstered Model 350 Lounge Chair by Arno Votteler for Walter Knoll 1950sBy Arno Votteler, Walter KnollLocated in Berlin, DEModel 350 lounge chair by Arno Votteler for Walter Knoll, Germany, 1950s. Newly upholstered in a steelcut kvadrat fabric.Category
Mid-20th Century German Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Newly upholstered Kvadrat Jens Risom settee or two seater USA - 1950sBy Jens RisomLocated in Berlin, DENewly upholstered Kvadrat Jens Risom settee or two seater. Oak frameCategory
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Settees
MaterialsFabric, Wood
- Pair of Jens Risom Lounge Chairs in Brown Webbing for Knoll, 1950sBy Jens RisomLocated in Berlin, DEPair of Jens Risom lounge chairs in brown webbing for Knoll. The seat is removable and adjustable from lounge to occasional chairs.Category
Vintage 1950s German Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsWood
- One of Two New Upholstered Daybeds by Bonacina, Italy, 1950sBy BonaccinaLocated in Berlin, DEDaybed by Bonacina in newly upholstered white fabric. Price is per piece.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Daybeds
MaterialsFabric, Upholstery
- Jens Risom Lounge Chair U-430 for Risom Inc., USA, 1950sBy Jens RisomLocated in Berlin, DEJens Risom lounge chair U-430 for Risom Inc., USA 1950s Upholstered in new Kvadrat Fabric.Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFabric, Walnut
- 1950s Basket Daybed in a Josef Frank Style FabricLocated in Berlin, DE1950s basket daybed in a Josef Frank style fabric.Category
Vintage 1950s European Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
MaterialsFabric
- Daybed by Jens RisomBy Jens RisomLocated in Dallas, TXA Jens Risom daybed with walnut frame and steel glides. Fully restored.Category
Vintage 1960s Daybeds
MaterialsWalnut
$9,500 - Walter Knoll by Bernd Münzebrock Brown Leather DaybedBy Bernd Münzebrock, Walter KnollLocated in London, GBOriginally designed by Bernd Münzebrock in 1973 and manufactured by Walter Knoll, this daybed is reminiscent of the iconic Bauhaus designs from the 1930s. Constructed from a chrome ...Category
Vintage 1970s German Daybeds
MaterialsLeather
$2,861 Sale Price20% Off - Jens Risom, Vostra Easy Lounge Chair for Walter KnollBy Jens Risom, Knoll, Walter KnollLocated in Brooklyn, NYDesigned for Knoll circa 1950, this Vintage Jens Risom Vostra Chair is modern and elegant with its curved lines. This chair is in the mid-century mod...Category
Mid-20th Century German Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsCotton, Maple
- 1950s Rare Set Vostra Chairs Numbered & Original Fabric by Jens Risom for Knoll.By Walter Knoll, Jens RisomLocated in Eindhoven, Noord BrabantThese rare “Vostra” easy chairs were designed by Jens Risom in 1941. These chairs are numbered in the frame. This is chair number 1247 and number 1248. The chairs are in good condtion. The original fabric is still on the chairs. The Vostra chair...Category
Vintage 1950s German Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFabric, Elm
$3,566 / setFree Shipping - Midcentury 1950s Daybed Upholstered in White WoolLocated in West Hollywood, CAElegant midcentury 1950s daybed upholstered in white wool with elegant single seam details and original legs.Category
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
MaterialsUpholstery
- Pair of Arm Chairs by Jens Risom for Knoll in Walnut and Newly UpholsteredBy Jens RisomLocated in Chesham, GBA pair Jens Risom armchairs in a newly upholstered blue coloured fabric. The frame is made from walnut. Manufacturer - Knoll Designer - Jens Risom Design Period - 1960 to 19...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsFabric, Walnut
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
Original in Berlin’s Lars Triesch Has Turned a Passion for Design into a Booming Business
His two gallery spaces in the German capital bring together thousands of pieces ranging from mid-century classics and Murano glass to covetable reproductions manufactured in-house.
100 Years Ago, Walter Knoll Bet Big on Modernist Furniture
He launched his eponymous German furniture maker in 1925, and the company has been going strong ever since.