Eero Saarinen for Knoll Tulip Chairs
About the Item
- Creator:Eero Saarinen (Designer),Knoll (Maker)
- Design:Tulip Arm ChairSaarinen Pedestal Series
- Dimensions:Height: 31 in (78.74 cm)Width: 24.75 in (62.87 cm)Depth: 24 in (60.96 cm)Seat Height: 19.5 in (49.53 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 6
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1900s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Some wear here and there. Recommend new upholstery on seat cushions.
- Seller Location:Dallas, TX
- Reference Number:Seller: #9702431stDibs: LU1078442106382
Tulip Armchair
Eero Saarinen (1910–61) absolutely hated clutter. "The undercarriage of chairs and tables in a typical interior makes an ugly, confusing, unrestful world,” the Finnish-American architect and industrial designer once said. “I wanted to clear up the slum of legs.” With the original Tulip armchair, he did just that, streamlining the standard four-legged piece into a graceful shape atop a single pedestal.
The 1957 design — which is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York — was one of Saarinen’s last; he died in 1961. Its sculptural shape displays the best of Saarinen, who referred to himself as a “form giver,” whether that form was a flower-shaped seat or the swooping curve of the Gateway Arch, a more than 600-foot-tall stainless-steel-clad concrete monument in St. Louis, Missouri, that he designed in the late 1940s.
The Tulip armchair was part of Saarinen’s Pedestal collection of armless chairs, stools, dining tables and more — a mid-century modernist exercise in simplifying. The series was designed for Knoll, which continues to produce it today. Visitors to the TWA Hotel, the 2019 reinvention of Saarinen’s iconic airport terminal, will find Tulip chairs dotting the structure.
Interestingly, the Tulip armchair’s shape suggests one single plastic form, but despite Saarinen’s many experiments to achieve this, it is actually constructed in two pieces: an aluminum frame obscured in a plastic finish and a fiberglass upper-shell seat. Two parts or one, it achieves Saarinen’s desired streamlined effect.
Eero Saarinen
Through his work as an architect and designer, Eero Saarinen was a prime mover in the introduction of modernism into the American mainstream. Particularly affecting were the organic, curvilinear forms seen in Saarinen’s furniture and his best-known structures: the gull-winged TWA Flight Center at John F. Kennedy airport in New York (opened 1962), Dulles International Airport in Virginia (1962) and the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri (1965).
Saarinen had a peerless modernist pedigree. His father, Eliel Saarinen, was an eminent Finnish architect who in 1932 became the first head of the Cranbrook Academy of Art in suburban Detroit. The school became synonymous with progressive design and decorative arts in the United States, and while studying there the younger Saarinen met and befriended several luminaries of mid-century modernism, among them Harry Bertoia and Charles and Ray Eames.
At Cranbrook, Saarinen also met Florence Schust Knoll, who, as director of her husband Hans Knoll's eponymous furniture company, would put Saarinen’s best designs into production. These include the Grasshopper chair, designed in 1946 and so named because its angled bentwood frame resembles the insect; the Tulip chair (1957), a flower-shaped fiberglass shell mounted on a cast-aluminum pedestal; and the lushly contoured Womb lounge chair and ottoman (1948). In his furniture as in his architecture, the keynotes of Eero Saarinen’s designs are simplicity, strength and grace.
Find vintage Eero Saarinen tables, chairs and other furniture on 1stDibs.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Dallas, TX
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
More From This Seller
View AllMid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Chrome
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Ta...
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
Marble, Metal
Late 20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Metal
You May Also Like
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Iron
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Ch...
Aluminum
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fabric, Fiberglass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Iron
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Aluminum
Mid-20th Century North American Dining Room Chairs
Wool
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
A Short History of the World’s Most Iconic Designs
Of the million-plus items on 1stdibs, some seem to have transcended time, looking as fresh today as when they were first produced. The pieces highlighted on our new Iconic Designs page stand out for longevity, functionality and quality of design and manufacture — just the tonic for the present unsettled moment.
The 21 Most Popular Mid-Century Modern Chairs
You know the designs, now get the stories about how they came to be.