Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair and Ottoman in Off-White Boucle
About the Item
- Creator:Knoll (Manufacturer),Eero Saarinen (Designer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 36 in (91.44 cm)Width: 41 in (104.14 cm)Depth: 37 in (93.98 cm)Seat Height: 17.5 in (44.45 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:1980s
- Condition:Reupholstered. Wear consistent with age and use. Like new.
- Seller Location:Dallas, TX
- Reference Number:
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.
- ShippingRetrieving quote...Ships From: Dallas, TX
- Return PolicyThis item cannot be returned.
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair is French BoucleBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Dallas, TXAn iconic Eero Saarinen for Knoll womb chair newly upholstered in a very high-quality French bouclé. The colors include yellow/gold, sienna browns and white. This pairs beautifully with one of the Dunbar sofas we have reupholstered in yellow/dijon mohair. Please visit circa20c...Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Executive ArmchairsBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Dallas, TXWe have a set of 12 like new Eero Saarinen executive armchairs. These would be wonderful re-upholstered in something for your home or office. Chrome is bright and shiny, foam is very...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsChrome
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll 60" Tulip Table in Arabescato MarbleBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Dallas, TXA very gently used Eero Saarinen for Knoll tulip table. In a beautiful Arabescato marble with a white base. This is ready for you immediately!. The image cast a yellowish to the tabl...Category
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsMarble, Metal
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Tulip TableBy Eero SaarinenLocated in Dallas, TXThe iconic tulip table by Eero Saarinen for Knoll. White laminate top.Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Ta...
MaterialsMetal
- Eero Saarinen Executive ArmchairBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Dallas, TXWe have up to ten available in this upholstery which is a Knoll textile with Bergamo piping. Or you can do in a fabric of your choice.Category
Late 20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Mies van der Rohe for Knoll Barcelona Chair and StoolBy Knoll, Ludwig Mies van der RoheLocated in Dallas, TXMies van der Rohe's iconic Barcelona chair with stool. Stamped Knoll.Category
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Vintage "Womb" Bouclé Chair and Ottoman by Eero Saarinen for KnollBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated 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
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair and OttomanBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated 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
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Boucle Womb Chair, 2019By Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Costa Mesa, CAEero Saarinen for Knoll Boucle Womb Chair, 2019. Covered in custom Flax Boucle from Knoll. The expressive sculptural forms of the Eero Saarinen Wom...Category
21st Century and Contemporary North American Mid-Century Modern Lounge C...
MaterialsBouclé
- 1960's Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair and OttomanBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated 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 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
- Womb Chair and Ottoman by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, 2000sBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated 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