Eero Saarinen Knoll Malachite Womb Chair and Ottoman
View Similar Items
Eero Saarinen Knoll Malachite Womb Chair and Ottoman
About the Item
- Creator:Eero Saarinen (Designer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 36 in (91.44 cm)Width: 39 in (99.06 cm)Depth: 30 in (76.2 cm)Seat Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)
- Sold As:Set of 2
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:Early 1970s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Phoenix, AZ
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU853219864842
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.
- Walnut & Bouclé Lounge Chairs by Henry Glass, 1960sBy Henry GlassLocated in Phoenix, AZPair of Henry Glass 1960s 'Intimate Island' walnut and upholstered bouclé lounge chairs. This pair has been expertly refinished and upholstered in a white Turkish bouclé. Red Modern also has an accompanying Intimate Island sofa...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsBouclé, Walnut
Sold$12,000 / set - Brazilian Rosewood Sling Chair & Ottoman, 1960sLocated in Phoenix, AZSculpted solid rosewood sling chair and ottoman from Brazil circa early 1960s. This example has a beautifully grained stacked rosewood frame and h...Category
Vintage 1960s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsRosewood
$6,800 / set - Sculptural Lounge Chair & Ottoman by Adrian Pearsall, 1970'sBy Adrian PearsallLocated in Phoenix, AZAll original sculptural taupe leather lounge chair and accompanying ottoman by Adrian Pearsall. Ottoman measures 15.25" H x 16.75" D x 23.25...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsLeather, Walnut
- Lounge Chairs & Ottoman by Hans J. Wegner for GETAMA in BoucléBy Hans J. Wegner, GETAMALocated in Phoenix, AZTwo Hans J. Wegner for GETAMA wide arm lounge chairs & ottomans in white Turkish bouclé with soft leather accents on the head cushion. Official s...Category
Vintage 1960s Danish Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsLeather, Bouclé, Oak
- Globe Chair for Artifort by Pierre Paulin, 1960sBy Pierre PaulinLocated in Phoenix, AZA memorable early swivel 'Globe' chair by Pierre Paulin for Artifort newly upholstered in pink Knoll Cato fabric.Category
Vintage 1960s French Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsIron
- Terje Ekstrom Early ‘Ekstrem’ ChairsBy Terje EkstromLocated in Phoenix, AZPair of all original early ‘Ekstrem’ lounge chairs by Terje Ekstrom.Category
Vintage 1980s Norwegian Post-Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery
$6,000 / set
- 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
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair and OttomanBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Philadelphia, PAEero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair and ottoman. Probably one of the most comfortable chairs ever created! This chair and ottoman d...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal
$6,800 / set - 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
- 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
- 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
- Custom Modernist KNOLL Womb Chair and Ottoman by Eero SaarinenBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Buffalo, NYEero Saarinen for Knoll Womb chair and ottoman. Custom Ordered “Puff” Mocha color upholstery "Nick Cave" and Manufactured by Knoll Textiles. Literally Brand new!! Woman ordered new f...Category
2010s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal, Steel