Womb Chair with Footstool by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, 1959
View Similar Items
Womb Chair with Footstool by Eero Saarinen for Knoll, 1959
About the Item
- Creator:Eero Saarinen (Designer)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 35.83 in (91 cm)Width: 38.98 in (99 cm)Depth: 33.86 in (86 cm)Seat Height: 16.15 in (41 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:Unknown
- Condition:Reupholstered. Wear consistent with age and use.
- Seller Location:Berlin, DE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU4616214175222
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.
- Eero Saarinen Conference Chair, Knoll InternationalBy Eero SaarinenLocated in Berlin, BerlinA conference chairs designed by Eero Saarinen. U.S.A., Knoll International, circa 1970. The conference chair, no. 72 with chrome-plated metal frame and new velvet covered seat and...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Pair of Eero Saarinen Conference Chairs, Knoll InternationalBy Eero SaarinenLocated in Berlin, BerlinA pair of conference chairs designed by Eero Saarinen. U.S.A., Knoll International, circa 1970. The conference chair, no. 72 with chrome plated metal frame and new velvet covered ...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Chairs
MaterialsMetal
- Vintage Barcelona Chair & Footstool by Knoll International, Early 1970sBy Ludwig Mies van der RoheLocated in Berlin, BerlinLounge chair and footstool designed by Mies van der Rohe. U.S.A., Knoll International, Early 1970s. Original super vintage and patinated 'BARCELONA CHAIR' in brown leather. Chrome...Category
Vintage 1970s American Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsLeather
- Pair of Lounge Chairs by Charles & Ray Eames, Vitra, 1980sBy Charles and Ray EamesLocated in Berlin, BerlinPair of Lounge chairs, designed by Charles and Ray Eames. Germany, Vitra, 1986. Beautiful original lounge chairs with a black shell and subtle and used yellow leather upholstery. ...Category
Late 20th Century German Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsLeather, Bentwood
- Lounge Chair and Footstool by Warren Platner, 1966By Warren PlatnerLocated in Berlin, BerlinVINTAGE Easy chair and footstool designed by Warren Platner. U.S.A, Knoll International, 1966. The lounge chair, model number 1725. Welded curved steel and wool upholstery. Beautifu...Category
Vintage 1960s American Modern Armchairs
MaterialsMetal
$11,718 / set - Dijnn Chair and Footstool, Designed by Olivier Mourgue, France, Airborne, 1965By Olivier MourgueLocated in Berlin, BerlinA set of the DIJNN Chair and Footstool in the original red stretch fabric. Metal construction with fabric and metal sliders. The Djinn chair is one element of a series of Djinn furniture designed by noted French designer Olivier Mourgue. In 1965 the first piece of the series, a Chaise Longue, was introduced by Airborne in Merignac Cedex, France. The rest of the series was released in 1965 and includes the iconic "Low Fireside Chair", a two-seat sofa, and a footstool. The set remained in production until 1976. The name "Djinn" refers to an Islamic spirit capable of changing shape. The design's low profile was an attempt to emulate the informal lifestyle of the time. The set was introduced during a time when growing interest in Eastern mysticism was influencing Western decorative arts. Originally called the "Low Fireside Chair", it is also commonly referred to as the "2001 Chair...Category
Late 20th Century French Organic Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsWool
- 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
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Pair of Two-Tone Womb Chairs with Ottomans, USA 1955By Eero SaarinenLocated in New York, NYA pair of the Classic womb chairs designed by Eero Saarinen with matching ottomans upholstered in bouclé and faux fur. These are e...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Armchairs
MaterialsMetal
- 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
- Rare Early Eero Saarinen Womb Chair and Ottoman, Knoll, USA, 1950sBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in London, GBA rare early production Eero Saarinen womb chairsand ottoman, made by Knoll, USA, 1950s. Fibreglass, black enameled steel frames and first edition feet / glides. Newly upholstered i...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel
- Early Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair, 1950By Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Chicago, ILEarly Eero Saarinen for Knoll Womb Chair, 1950. Upholstery is all original. We have in house upholstery if interested for an additional charge....Category
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsIron
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Boucle Womb Chair, 2019By Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated 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
$4,640 Sale Price20% Off