Womb Chair and Ottoman medium version by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, 2000's mint
View Similar Items
Womb Chair and Ottoman medium version by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, 2000's mint
About the Item
- Creator:Eero Saarinen (Designer),Knoll (Manufacturer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 31.5 in (80.01 cm)Width: 35 in (88.9 cm)Depth: 30 in (76.2 cm)Seat Height: 18 in (45.72 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:2000s
- Condition:Condition: Excellent, nearly as new.
- Seller Location:Chicago, IL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU7362230365842
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.
- 1960's Eero Saarinen Tulip dining chairs for Knoll, set of 4 upholsteredBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Chicago, ILEero Saarinen Tulip chairs, armless with off-white upholstery. by Knoll, USA Set of 4 chairs Manufacturer "Park Avenue" labels attached underneath cushions. Please note these do not...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsFiberglass
$3,760 Sale Price / set20% Off - Knoll Eero Saarinen Executive Chair, Armchair black upholsteryBy Eero SaarinenLocated in Chicago, ILThis for (1) Saarinen Executive Chair, armchair version. Knoll, Circa 1985. Black upholstery, chrome legs. Priced individually. (4) available. Originally designed in 1946, these h...Category
Vintage 1980s Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsChrome
- Frank Gehry Power Play Chair for Knoll, Black LacqueredBy Frank Gehry, KnollLocated in Chicago, ILFrank Gehry Power Play chair. Hard maple, black finish. Frame constructed of hard white maple veneer strips. The underside of both piece...Category
1990s Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMaple
- Pair of Frank Gehry Power Play Chairs for Knoll, Black LacqueredBy Frank Gehry, KnollLocated in Chicago, ILPair of Frank Gehry Power Play chairs. Hard maple, black finish. Frame constructed of hard white maple veneer strips. The underside of both...Category
1990s Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMaple
- Pair of Mies Van der Rohe MR Lounge Chairs with arms for Knoll, brown suedeBy Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, KnollLocated in Chicago, ILA pair of Mr Lounge Chairs with Arms designed my Mies Van Der Rohe for Knoll. Brown suede seat pad / tubular chrome steel frame Leather straps Knoll manufacturer labels dating: Nov ...Category
Vintage 1980s North American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Set of 2 Warren Platner Lounge Chairs for Knoll International, blue upholsteryBy Warren PlatnerLocated in Chicago, ILPair of Warren Platner Lounge Chairs for Knoll International. Blue upholstery, nickel frame. Earlier editions. The Platner Collection (1966) reflects his belief that there’s room i...Category
Vintage 1970s Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsNickel
$7,160 Sale Price / set20% Off
- Womb Chair and Ottoman by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, 2000sBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Renens, CHIndulge in comfort with the Womb Chair, designed by Eero Saarinen and produced by Knoll. This iconic chair showcases Saarinen’s visionary design, and Kn...Category
Early 2000s Italian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Eero Saarinen vintage Womb Chair and Ottoman for KnollBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated 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
- 1960's Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair and OttomanBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated 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. The fabric content is 43% Polyester, 37% Post Industrial Recycled Polyester, 20% Post Consumer Recycled Polyester, from the Knoll website. The Ottoman dimensions are 25x19 inches and it's 15.5 inches tall. The ottoman bears the Knoll label from 320 park avenue which dates the set to the 1960's. The steel legs are in generally good shape for their age, but the ottoman's have some corrosion particularly on one side, please see the detailed photos. It is pictured in our gallery with a Verner Panton onion...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Vintage "Womb" Bouclé Chair and Ottoman by Eero Saarinen for KnollBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in North Hollywood, CAWonderful vintage “womb” bouclé chair and ottoman designed by Eero Saarinen for Knoll in the United States, early 1940s. This chair has a modern design and could be considered even a...Category
Vintage 1940s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- 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
- Eero Saarinen Womb Chair and Ottoman, Knoll, USA, 1950sBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in London, GBAn early production Eero Saarinen womb chair and ottoman, made by Knoll, USA, 1950s. Newly upholstered in luxurious pure Alpaca fabric (brown / grey) with a structure of fibreglass, black enameled steel frames and first edition feet / glides. Fast shipping worldwide. When asked by Florence Knoll to design 'a chair that was like a basket full of cushions - something she could really curl up in', Eero Saarinen produced the Womb chair...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel