Jens Risom, Vostra Easy Lounge Chair for Walter Knoll
About the Item
- Creator:
- Dimensions:Height: 31 in (78.74 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)Depth: 24 in (60.96 cm)Seat Height: 15.75 in (40.01 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1950
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Minor fading.
- Seller Location:Brooklyn, NY
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU3105329832562
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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Brooklyn, NY
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- French Wicker and Rattan Side ChairLocated in Brooklyn, NYThis rattan chair is whimsical yet polished. Rattan is sturdy and in great condition.Category
Mid-20th Century Chairs
MaterialsWicker, Raffia, Rattan
- Canvas and Painted Bamboo Accent ChairLocated in Brooklyn, NYRich dark brown/black painted bamboo accent chair with stretched canvas seat. Canvas is faded but sturdy.Category
Mid-20th Century Chairs
MaterialsBamboo, Canvas
- Mid-Century Henning Kjaernulf Side ChairsLocated in Brooklyn, NYPair of Henning Kjaernulf chairs made in Nyrup Mobelfabrik, Denmark. Minor water spots on upholstery and scuffing to legs, otherwise in great ...Category
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Side Chairs
MaterialsOak
- Pair of Mid Century Thonet Style Bentwood Folding ChairsLocated in Brooklyn, NYA unique pair of chairs with a heavy Thonet influence. From the bentwood, the lines and curves, the sleekness, the fluidity. Classic yet so unusual. Canvas and wood are in great cond...Category
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsRope, Bentwood
- 1940s Embroidered French Fireside Chairs, PairLocated in Brooklyn, NYPair of 1940s French slipper chairs. Hand-embroidered floral design with stained beech accents. Minor wear on upholstery consistent with age and use.Category
Vintage 1940s French Art Deco Slipper Chairs
MaterialsWool, Wood
- Henning Kjaernulf Carved Oak StoolBy Henning KjærnulfLocated in Brooklyn, NYCarved oak base, period striped wool seat upholstery with nailhead trim. Condition conducive with age.Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Footstools
MaterialsOak
- Jens Risom, Vostra Easy Lounge Chair, Design 1941 for Walter Knoll, GermanyBy Jens Risom, Walter Knoll, KnollLocated in Munster, NRWJens Risom for Walter Knoll - Easychair Vostra, 1941 Design from 1941 - model of the 50s, beech frame. This Easychair comes from the private property of an art dealer in Cologne,...Category
Vintage 1940s German Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsBeech
- Jens Risom Vostra Easy Lounge Chair for KnollBy Jens RisomLocated in Chicago, ILJens Risom Vostra Easy Lounge Chair for Knoll. Original condition.Category
Vintage 1980s American Lounge Chairs
MaterialsWood
- Jens Risom for Knoll Mid Century Strap Lounge Chairs, PairBy Jens Risom, KnollLocated in Countryside, ILJens Risom for Knoll mid century strap lounge chairs - pair These chairs measure: 20 wide x 23 deep x 30 inches high, with a seat height of 15.5 inches ?All pieces of furniture...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery, Wood
- Jens Risom Pair of 'Vostra' Lounge Chairs with OttomanBy Walter Knoll, Jens RisomLocated in Waalwijk, NLJens Risom for Walter Knoll, pair of 'Vostra' chairs with ottoman, beech, pink canvas, brass, United States, design 1941, production 1950s Elegant lounge chairs with ottoman with be...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsBrass
- 1950s Rare Set Vostra Chairs Numbered & Original Fabric by Jens Risom for Knoll.By Jens Risom, Walter KnollLocated 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
- One Vintage Jens Risom for Knoll Lounge ChairsBy Knoll, Jens RisomLocated in Pasadena, TXOne mid-century modern armless lounge chair designed by Jens Risom for Knoll originally in 1946. This early design has a hard maple frame with new linen upholstery.Category
Vintage 1950s Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFabric, Maple