Eero Saarinen for Knoll Custom Black Stone Top on Early Tulip Table Base Base
View Similar Items
Eero Saarinen for Knoll Custom Black Stone Top on Early Tulip Table Base Base
About the Item
- Creator:Knoll (Manufacturer),Eero Saarinen (Designer)
- Design:Saarinen Pedestal TableSaarinen Pedestal Series
- Dimensions:Height: 20.5 in (52.07 cm)Diameter: 16 in (40.64 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1958
- Condition:Refinished.
- Seller Location:Ferndale, MI
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU848216886251
Pedestal Table
Finnish-American architect and furniture maker Eero Saarinen (1910–61) declared that he “wanted to clear up the slum of legs” crowded beneath tables. Enter his Pedestal collection, which Knoll launched in 1958. The collection included armchairs, stools and tables of various sizes all balanced on a single supporting leg.
Saarinen got his start in furniture as a student at Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art, where his father, architect Eliel Saarinen, was director. Some of Eero’s earliest work was designing furniture for Kingswood, a Cranbrook school for girls that opened in 1931. The pieces included a table with four gathered legs in order to make room for both people and chairs’ legs.
At Cranbrook Academy, Saarinen met Florence Knoll, who would become a lifelong friend and professional partner, especially when she was leading the Knoll furniture company. He also met fellow designer Charles Eames, and — with support from Ray Eames — they created the molded plywood Organic chair, which placed first in the 1940 Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As with Saarinen’s future practice, the Organic chair was emblematic of a design approach that was informed by a consideration of the human body as well as the possibilities of new machine processes.
Although America’s involvement in World War II disrupted plans to manufacture the Organic chair, Saarinen continued to explore organic shapes in industrial design. His interest in using seamless plastic forms was clear with his Pedestal series, but the technology was not advanced enough for their stability. Instead, the Pedestal table and its accompanying Tulip armchairs and armless chairs comprised cast-aluminum bases. Each table, stool and chair was crafted with a single, tapered cylindrical leg that descends to a base that flares into a circle, giving the illusion of being one piece. Like his Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the series’ pieces appear to float, and although austere in silhouette, they reflect intense attention to engineering.
The Pedestal table was released with several additional options, including marble and wood veneer for its round and oval tops for dining, side and coffee tables. Because of their modest footprint on a room and streamlined design, these tables can harmonize with nearly any interior style. The design’s status as a mid-century modern classic has inspired numerous imitators, but Saarinen’s original Pedestal table — still manufactured by Knoll — maintains the grace and quality that distinguishes it from the rest.
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.
- Early Eero Saarinen for Knoll Cast Iron Tulip Table with Custom Travertine TopBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Ferndale, MITulip table Designed by Eero Saarinen for Knoll. Eero Saarinen vowed to address the "ugly, confusing, unrestful world" he observed underneath chairs and tables - the so-called "slum ...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsTravertine, Iron
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll 20" Pedestal Tulip Group Side TableBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Ferndale, MIWhite laminate 20" diameter top on weighted cast base . Knoll label intact on underside of the top . Minor paint flaked on top edge . The ever iconic Tulip table was designed by Eer...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsMetal
- Eero Aarnio Wicker Table BaseBy Eero AarnioLocated in Ferndale, MIEero Aarnio wicker table base calls for glass insert 21.63 " not included with this base .Category
Mid-20th Century Finnish Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsWicker
- Properly Restored Early Production Eero Saarinen Grasshopper Chair for KnollBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Ferndale, MIEero Saarinen's "Grasshopper " chair model 61 was the first lounge chair he designed for Knoll in the late 1940s before designing the Womb chair . Responding to what he saw as the r...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsFabric, Maple
- Classic Early Production Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair with OttomanBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Ferndale, MIShortly after Florence Knoll joined her husband, Hans in the running of Knoll , she presented the Finnish-born designer Eero Saarinen with a request: to create for her the world’s mo...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel, Wrought Iron
- Set of Four Rare Early Production Eero Saarinen for H.G. Knoll Dining ChairsBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated 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 for Knoll Style Mid-Century Oval Tulip Tables, a PairBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Countryside, ILEero Saarinen for Knoll style mid-century oval tulip tables - a pair Each table measures: 23 wide x 15.25 deep x 20 inches high. All pieces of furniture can be had in what we c...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsMetal
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Mid Century Tulip Side End Tables - PairBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Countryside, ILEero Saarinen for Knoll Mid Century Tulip Side End Tables - Pair Each table measures: 20 wide x 20 deep x 20.5 inches high All pieces of furniture can be had in what we call restor...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsFiberglass
- Figured Walnut Saarinen Tulip Side Table for Knoll International, Early 1960sBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Grand Cayman, KYIconic tulip pedestal table by Eero Saarinen for Knoll International. Early edition, likely from the 1960. It consists of a cast aluminum base with original white vinyl wrap. The mak...Category
Mid-20th Century German Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
MaterialsAluminum
- Early Eero Saarinen for Knoll Oval Tulip Side TableBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Middlesex, NJEarly Eero Saarinen for Knoll oval tulip side table. Retains early Knoll label.Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Side Tables
- Saarinen Knoll Tulip TableBy Eero SaarinenLocated in New York, NYEarly Knoll Saarinen tulip table, cast iron base, oval laminate top. Minor cosmetic wear, normal and consistent with age.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern End Tables
MaterialsIron
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Tulip Occasional Table, circa 1960sBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Westport, CTKnoll Occasional Table designed by Eero Saarinen. Base newly lacquered in black, walnut top fully restored. Very heavy early iron cast example with a higher manufacturing quality tha...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern End Tables
MaterialsIron