Set of Two Eero Saarinen Series 71 Armless Chair for Knoll, 1960s De Coene
View Similar Items
Set of Two Eero Saarinen Series 71 Armless Chair for Knoll, 1960s De Coene
About the Item
- Creator:Florence Knoll (Cabinetmaker),Eero Saarinen (Designer)
- Dimensions:Height: 32.29 in (82 cm)Width: 22.45 in (57 cm)Depth: 20.48 in (52 cm)Seat Height: 18.12 in (46 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1960s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Minor fading.
- Seller Location:Ghent, BE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2567310198841
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.
Florence Knoll
Architect, furniture designer, interior designer, entrepreneur — Florence Knoll had a subtle but profound influence on the course of mid-century American modernism. Dedicated to functionality and organization, and never flamboyant, Knoll shaped the ethos of the postwar business world with her polished, efficient design and skillfully realized office plans.
Knoll had perhaps the most thorough design education of any of her peers. Florence Schust was orphaned at age 12, and her guardian sent her to Kingswood, a girl’s boarding school that is part of the Cranbrook Educational Community in suburban Detroit. Her interest in design brought her to the attention of Eliel Saarinen, the Finnish architect and head of the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Saarinen and his wife took the talented child under their wing, and she became close to their son, the future architect Eero Saarinen. While a student at the academy, Florence befriended artist-designer Harry Bertoia and Charles and Ray Eames. Later, she studied under three of the Bauhaus masters who emigrated to the United States. She worked as an apprentice in the Boston architectural offices of Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer; Ludwig Mies van der Rohe taught her at the Illinois Institute of Technology.
In 1941, she met Hans Knoll, whose eponymous furniture company was just getting off the ground. They married in 1946, and her design sense and his business skills soon made Knoll Inc. a leading firm in its field. Florence signed up the younger Saarinen as a designer, and would develop pieces by Bertoia, Mies and the artist Isamu Noguchi. Her main work came as head of the Knoll Planning Group, designing custom office interiors for clients such as IBM and CBS. The furniture Florence created for these spaces reflects her Bauhaus training: the pieces are pure functional design, exactingly built; their only ornament from the materials, such as wood and marble. Her innovations — the oval conference table, for example, conceived as a way to ensure clear sightlines among all seated at a meeting — were always in the service of practicality.
Since her retirement in 1965, Knoll received the National Medal of Arts, among other awards; in 2004 the Philadelphia Museum of Art mounted the exhibition “Florence Knoll: Defining Modern” — well deserved accolades for a strong, successful design and business pioneer. As demonstrated on these pages, the simplicity of Knoll’s furniture is her work’s great virtue: they fit into any interior design scheme.
- Black Eero Saarinen Series 71 Armless Chair for Knoll InternationalBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Aramits, Nouvelle-AquitaineOriginal Eero Saarinen executive armless side or dining chair in black wool fabric with chrome legs. Original fabric and foam in very good condition.Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Eero Saarinen Executive Side Chair For KnollBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Brooklyn, NYExecutive side chair by Eero Saarinen for Knoll features green print, linen blend upholstery with chrome legs. This iconic chair is extremely comfortable and is the epitome of mid-ce...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Set of Four Rare Early Production Eero Saarinen for H.G. Knoll Dining ChairsBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Ferndale, MIFrom the put me in a museum collection. Out of long long term storage. The Earliest production set of four Eero Saarinen for HG Knoll executive chairs I have ever seen. All four on f...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsAluminum, Steel
- Eero Saarinen Executive Armless Chair for KnollBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Brooklyn, NYEero Saarinen executive armless chair for Knoll. Inspired by his Womb chair design, the molded chair back melds to the sitter for...Category
Mid-20th Century North American Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsWool
$1,600 / item - Set of Four Eero Saarinen Series 71 Executive Armchairs for KnollBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Dronten, NLFeatured in nearly all Florence Knoll-designed interiors, the Saarinen Executive Chair has remained one of Knoll's most popular designs for nearly 70 years. The design, which is now ...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Early Version of Eero Saarinen Side or Desk Chair for KnollBy Eero SaarinenLocated in St. Louis, MOEarly version of Eero Saarinen side chair for Knoll with early label. This version has aluminum legs and early base configuration, unlike the later segmented legs. Chair should be re...Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Side Chairs
MaterialsAluminum