Womb Settee by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, circa 1960s
View Similar Items
Womb Settee by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, circa 1960s
About the Item
- Creator:Eero Saarinen (Designer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 35 in (88.9 cm)Width: 62 in (157.48 cm)Depth: 34 in (86.36 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (In the Style Of)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1960s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Very good condition showing minor wear to frame, minor scratches.
- Seller Location:Houston, TX
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU850617973072
Womb Chair
Shortly after Eero Saarinen (1910–61) joined Florence Knoll at the manufacturer she had established with her husband, Hans, she presented the Finnish-born designer with a serious request: to create for her the world’s most comfortable chair, something, Saarinen recalls, that felt like “a basket full of pillows.”
Presented with the challenge, Saarinen went primal. What, the designer figured, better signifies the very essence of comfort than the womb? "It was designed on the theory that a great number of people have never really felt comfortable and secure since they left the womb,” the designer said of his chair, which began production in 1948. “The chair is an attempt to rectify this maladjustment in our civilization.”
The Womb chair, like many other masterpieces of modernist design, is genius in its simplicity. Comprised of few materials, the chair consists of a fabric-wrapped, molded fiberglass bucket set atop legs of tubular steel. The skeletal look of the frame keeps the chair from appearing bulky despite the seat’s oversized silhouette, which makes it inviting to people of all sizes.
"There seemed to be a need for a large and really comfortable chair to take the place of the old overstuffed chair,” Saarinen once said of his concept. Indeed, despite being indisputably comfortable, the Womb doesn’t require an abundance of padding and tufting — instead, its comfort owes to a perfectly shaped shell of fiberglass. This new approach to ergonomics both reflected Saarinen’s love of streamlined forms and echoed the kind of experimental work being done by American designers Charles and Ray Eames, who, like Florence Knoll, were friends he'd made at Cranbrook Academy of Art while he taught there.
It didn’t take long for the chair to become a cultural phenomenon; in the decade following its release, it appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial, a New Yorker cartoon and in a Norman Rockwell painting on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post. Today, Knoll offers the seat in some 15 upholstery options, and when Saarinen’s famous TWA terminal reopened as a hotel in 2019, Womb chairs featured prominently in the guest rooms, continuing the legacy of this classic design.
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.
- Eero Saarinen vintage Womb Chair and Ottoman for KnollBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Houston, TXEero Saarinen Knoll International USA 1946 upholstery, painted steel chair: 35 h × 41 w × 35 d inches Vintage Eero Saarinen womb chair and ottoman for Knoll...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Arne Jacobsen Swan Settee, Model 3321 Fritz HansenBy Arne Jacobsen, Fritz HansenLocated in Houston, TXArne Jacobsen Swan settee, model 3321 Fritz Hansen Denmark, 1958 leather, aluminum, plastic Vintage Arne Jacobsen swan settee.Category
Mid-20th Century Danish Mid-Century Modern Settees
MaterialsLeather
- Poul Kjaerholm for E. Kold Christensen PK 24 Chaise, circa 1960sBy Poul Kjærholm, E. Kold ChristensenLocated in Houston, TXPoul Kjaerholm for E. Kold Christensen chaise Model PK 24 Made in Denmark, circa 1960s Handwoven cane, stainless steel, counterweight custom leather head rest.Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Scandinavian Modern Chaise Longues
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Florence Knoll stool / bench in leather for Knoll AssociatesBy Florence Knoll, KnollLocated in Houston, TXFlorence Knoll stool Knoll Associates USA 1984 leather, steel 17 h × 18 w × 18 d inches Vintage piece.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Stools
MaterialsStainless Steel
- Maya Lin Table for Knoll StudioBy Knoll, Maya LinLocated in Houston, TXMaya Lin table Knoll Studio USA, 2000 birch veneer, metal Rare table designed by Maya Lin for Knoll. The table is no longer produced.Category
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern Tables
MaterialsBirch
- Warren Platner Side Tables for KnollBy Warren Platner, KnollLocated in Houston, TXWarren platner pair of side or occasional tables Knoll International USA, 1960s Oak, bronzed steel Measures: 18.5 height × 24 diameter inches.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsSteel
$7,500 / set
- Rare Early Eero Saarinen Womb Sofa / Settee, Knoll, USA, 1950sBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in London, GBA very rare early production Eero Saarinen womb settee, made by Knoll, USA, 1950s. Fibreglass, black enameled steel frames and first edition feet ...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Sofas
MaterialsSteel
- Early Wool Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, 1960sBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Aachen, NWEarly 2-tone wool Womb chair by Eero Saarinen for Knoll. The groundbreaking Womb chair was designed in 1948 by Eero Saarinen at Florence Knoll's request for "a chair that was lik...Category
Mid-20th Century American Lounge Chairs
MaterialsAluminum
- Woodgreen Womb Chair & Ottoman by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, 1960sBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Aachen, NWEarly Woodwood Green Womb chair and ottoman by Eero Saarinen for Knoll. The groundbreaking Womb chair was designed in 1948 by Eero Saarinen at Florence Knoll's request for "a chair...Category
Mid-20th Century American Lounge Chairs
MaterialsAluminum
- 1960's Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair and OttomanBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Palm Springs, CAA lovely example of the Iconic Womb Chair and Ottoman designed by Eero Saarinen for Knoll. We have had it re-upholstered in a genuine Knoll fabric, Crossroads in a Honey Bee color. T...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Womb Chair & Ottoman by Eero Saarinen for KnollBy Eero SaarinenLocated in Dallas, TXA womb chair and ottoman designed by Eero Saarinen for Knoll upholstered in baroque fabric.Category
Vintage 1960s Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFabric
- Womb Chair and Ottoman by Eero Saarinen for KnollBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Dorchester, MADesigned for Knoll by Eero Saarinen in 1948, the Womb chair with ottoman has become a modernist classic. The contoured frame of fiberglass and polished ...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsChrome