1960
s Eero Saarinen Tulip dining chairs for Knoll, set of 4 upholstered
About the Item
- Creator:Knoll (Manufacturer),Eero Saarinen (Designer)
- Design:Tulip Armless ChairSaarinen Pedestal Series
- Dimensions:Height: 32 in (81.28 cm)Width: 20 in (50.8 cm)Depth: 21 in (53.34 cm)Seat Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 4
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1970 s
- Condition:Reupholstered. Wear consistent with age and use. Overall very good to excellent condition. Very minor wear to shells and legs, free of breaks. They have been professionally reupholstered cushions in Knoll fabric. Please note these do not swivel.
- Seller Location:Chicago, IL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU7362235930662
Tulip Armless Chair
With his iconic Pedestal collection, architect and designer Eero Saarinen (1910–61) vowed to “clear up the slum of legs,” as he described the visual clutter resulting from traditional furniture frames in a 1956 TIME magazine cover story. Central to this endeavor is the Pedestal table, whose round top on a slender, graceful pedestal would become a near ubiquitous — and oft-imitated — form. The Tulip armchair and the Tulip armless chair continue this streamlining in Saarinen’s modern, space-age aesthetic.
With its simplified silhouette and fiberglass body, the Tulip armless chair is at once elegant and industrial, a feat that Saarinen continually mastered in mid-century modern works ranging from furniture to architecture (think the St. Louis Arch and the TWA Terminal at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, which has reopened as a hotel). The designer originally tried to cast the entire seat in fiberglass, pushing the envelope of modern furniture production, but, to ensure stability, he eventually settled on a cast-aluminum base and fiberglass seat. In 1957, the chair was put into production through Knoll — Saarinen knew pioneering American designer Florence Knoll from his days at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, where he taught and took on design projects for the school. It has remained one of the legendary firm’s most popular seats ever since.
Given its sculptural shape, the Tulip armless chair can be paired with a Saarinen table for a wholly modern dining set — as it appears throughout the TWA Hotel — or hold its own as a side or accent chair, a popular touch by top residential designers today. The Velcro-attached seat cushion is available in over a dozen upholstery options, though the thoroughly space-age cherry red is undoubtedly the most famous.
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.
You May Also Like
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Metal
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Iron
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery, Fiberglass
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery, Fiberglass
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery, Bentwood
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Aluminum
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery, Fiberglass
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Enamel, Steel
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Steel
More From This Seller
View AllVintage 1960s Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
Fiberglass
Early 2000s Mid-Century Modern Chairs
Mohair, Bentwood
Early 2000s Chairs
Mohair, Bentwood
Vintage 1950s Side Tables
Laminate
Vintage 1970s Minimalist Dining Room Chairs
Upholstery
Vintage 1960s Italian Bauhaus Dining Room Chairs
Cane
Still Thinking About These?
All Recently ViewedRead More
The 21 Most Popular Mid-Century Modern Chairs
You know the designs, now get the stories about how they came to be.
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.