4 Tulip Style White Fiberglass Swivel Armchairs, Arthur Umanoff for Contemporary

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4 Tulip Style White Fiberglass Swivel Armchairs, Arthur Umanoff for Contemporary

About the Item

Handsome set of four tulip style white fiberglass swivel armchairs with royal blue seat cushions designed by Arthur Umanoff for Contemporary Shells. These are era appropriate vintage chairs done in the style of Eero Saarinen for Knoll. They are in wonderful vintage condition. There is a dark stripe on the edge of the seat cushions but it is only seen when not in place. The bases do have slight age appropriate marks. Please see photos, circa 1970s. These fabulous chairs are just what you need around your mid mod kitchen table! Or maybe for around a game table in your family room, great room, or sunroom. I can see them there. Can’t you? Although done in the style of Eero Saarinen’s tulip chairs which were produced by Knoll, this set of four were redesigned by Arthur Umanoff for Contemporary Shells, Inc. Umanoff was a skilled designer of the period with a huge following of his own. These chairs are comprised of a fiberglass armed shell seat, with Contemporary Shells’ telltale chevron or inverted V, that swivels on its cast aluminum base. They are each fitted with a bold cobalt or royal blue padded seat cushion for added comfort and pizzazz. Arthur Umanoff (1923-1985), a Pratt and American School of Design graduate, was a fabulous and prolific Mid-Century Modern and modern designer during the mid-late 20th century. He began his career in 1952 at The Elton Company. His designs include a wide range of decor items as well as furniture which focused for a time on fun bars and barstools and a variety of patio pieces in wrought iron and wood and laminates. Some of the companies he designed for include Shaver Howard, Washington Woodcraft, Howard Miller, Contemporary Shells, and Arleigh to name just a few. His designs are widely sought after today. These tulip chairs are mid-20th century modern classics. You must make them yours. Chair size: Height – 28.5 inches Width – 25 inches Depth – 20 inches Seat height – 18 inches Arm height – 21.5 inches Inside seat width – 19.5 inches Inside seat depth – 17.5 inches Inside back height – 13 inches Weight – 19.2 pounds each Crated size: Height – 51 inches Width – 57 inches Depth – 26 inches Weight – 200 pounds.

Creator:
Contemporary Shells Inc. 1 (Maker),Arthur Umanoff (Designer)
Similar to:
Eero Saarinen (Designer)Knoll (Maker)
Dimensions:
Height: 28.5 in (72.39 cm)Width: 25 in (63.5 cm)Depth: 20 in (50.8 cm)Seat Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 4
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Aluminum,Fabric,Fiberglass,Cast
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
circa 1970s
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. They are in wonderful vintage condition with no obvious or outstanding flaws that we have detected. Please see photos.
Seller Location:
Topeka, KS
Reference Number:
Seller: MON-SEA-2441stDibs: LU1873316840222

Shop All Arthur Umanoff

Arthur Umanoff

Though much of Arthur Umanoff’s furniture is marked by a no-frills simplicity common in American mid-century modern design, his work is anything but one-note. Over the course of a prolific career, Umanoff designed everything from case pieces to candleholders to dining chairs in iron, leather, walnut, wicker and more. With furnishings for a broad range of manufacturers throughout the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and early ’80s, Umanoff continued a thread of sculptural elegance and textural sensitivity through his designs.

After graduating from Pratt Institute in the early 1950s, Umanoff experimented mostly with wood furniture before landing a job at Post Modern Ltd, a New York manufacturer of wrought-iron furniture. There he produced furnishings that married wrought iron with wood and plastic, creating functional pieces free of utilitarian bulkiness. Umanoff continued his experimentation with mixed materials through a partnership with Shaver Howard, for whom he designed wine racks in combinations of iron, leather and wicker.

When Shaver Howard bought Boyeur Scott, Umanoff conceived several furniture designs for the brand, including the 1964 Granada collection, whose curlicue iron bases, visible through glass tops, stand out as some of his most ornate and decorative work. Indeed, much of Umanoff’s oeuvre is far more simplistic, like iron-and-pine armchairs for The Elton Co. or low-backed, slatted-seat barstools with slender iron legs for Raymor.

Umanoff was fluent, too, in the more sumptuous modernism of the era: In the mid-1960s, he designed the 2405 and 4449 armchairs for Madison Furniture Industries. Popular in offices, the walnut-framed, leather-upholstered seats, which could have been mistaken for the seductive Scandinavian modern seating of the era, were reportedly the jumping-off point for Captain Kirk’s iconic seat on Star Trek.

Even as he is among the mid-century modern designers you may not know, with work across such a range of styles and manufacturers (most no longer in business), Umanoff, who died in 1985, leaves a legacy that is fascinatingly diverse and at times enticingly elusive, making his work intriguing objects for collectors.

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