Eero Saarinen Tulip Cocktail Table
View Similar Items
Eero Saarinen Tulip Cocktail Table
About the Item
- Creator:Eero Saarinen (Designer),Knoll (Manufacturer)
- Design:Saarinen Pedestal TableSaarinen Pedestal Series
- Dimensions:Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Width: 54 in (137.16 cm)Depth: 36 in (91.44 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:Carrara Marble
- Place of Origin:United States
- Period:1960-1969
- Date of Manufacture:circa 1960
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. Lightly used, with very light scratches, or minor cosmetic wear, but has no structural issues. Most antique and vintage items fit this condition.
- Seller Location:Chicago, IL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU847414759771
Pedestal Table
Finnish-American architect and furniture maker Eero Saarinen (1910–61) declared that he “wanted to clear up the slum of legs” crowded beneath tables. Enter his Pedestal collection, which Knoll launched in 1958. The collection included armchairs, stools and tables of various sizes all balanced on a single supporting leg.
Saarinen got his start in furniture as a student at Michigan’s Cranbrook Academy of Art, where his father, architect Eliel Saarinen, was director. Some of Eero’s earliest work was designing furniture for Kingswood, a Cranbrook school for girls that opened in 1931. The pieces included a table with four gathered legs in order to make room for both people and chairs’ legs.
At Cranbrook Academy, Saarinen met Florence Knoll, who would become a lifelong friend and professional partner, especially when she was leading the Knoll furniture company. He also met fellow designer Charles Eames, and — with support from Ray Eames — they created the molded plywood Organic chair, which placed first in the 1940 Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As with Saarinen’s future practice, the Organic chair was emblematic of a design approach that was informed by a consideration of the human body as well as the possibilities of new machine processes.
Although America’s involvement in World War II disrupted plans to manufacture the Organic chair, Saarinen continued to explore organic shapes in industrial design. His interest in using seamless plastic forms was clear with his Pedestal series, but the technology was not advanced enough for their stability. Instead, the Pedestal table and its accompanying Tulip armchairs and armless chairs comprised cast-aluminum bases. Each table, stool and chair was crafted with a single, tapered cylindrical leg that descends to a base that flares into a circle, giving the illusion of being one piece. Like his Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the series’ pieces appear to float, and although austere in silhouette, they reflect intense attention to engineering.
The Pedestal table was released with several additional options, including marble and wood veneer for its round and oval tops for dining, side and coffee tables. Because of their modest footprint on a room and streamlined design, these tables can harmonize with nearly any interior style. The design’s status as a mid-century modern classic has inspired numerous imitators, but Saarinen’s original Pedestal table — still manufactured by Knoll — maintains the grace and quality that distinguishes it from the rest.
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.
- Pierre Cardin Cocktail TableBy Pierre CardinLocated in Chicago, ILPierre Cardin geometric grid table, intersecting brass and chrome patterns with polished 3/4" glass top with radius corners.Category
Vintage 1970s French Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsChrome, Brass
- Warren Platner Marble and Brass Coffee TableBy Warren PlatnerLocated in Chicago, ILPlatner custom coffee table marble top with scalloped corners, brass base, swivels as shown. Provenance: Friedman residence , Greenwich, CT. 1989.Category
Vintage 1980s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMarble, Brass
- Max Kuehne Custom Coffee TableBy Max KuehneLocated in Chicago, ILMax Kuehne custom coffee table, this unique table a private commission with hand carved wood is then painted and silver leafed over decorative moti...Category
Vintage 1930s American Beaux Arts Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsWood
- Richard Meier Cocktail Table for KnollBy Richard Meier, KnollLocated in Chicago, ILRare 860T cocktail table for Knoll International. Limited production. Made from lacquered maple wood. Rounded corners and a slatted X-base. Designers initials engraved on underside.Category
Vintage 1980s American Post-Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMaple
- Lucia Mercer for Knoll Custom Sierra Brown Granite Cocktail TableBy Lucia Mercer, KnollLocated in Chicago, ILLucia Mercer for Knoll Custom Sierra Brown Granite Cocktail Table 1982 Sierra Brown Granite is a kind of brown granite with hints of beige and black quarried in Brazil. The most dist...Category
Vintage 1980s Brazilian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsGranite
- Warren Platner Cocktail TableBy Warren PlatnerLocated in Chicago, ILCustom Platner coffee table, architectural commission by Platner Office manufactured by Lehigh Leopold. Honed Luna pearl granite top with bronze base.Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsGranite, Bronze
- Midcentury Tulip Table in Style of Eero SaarinenBy Vitra, Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Praha, CZ- Very practical - Iconic design.Category
Vintage 1970s Swiss Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMetal
- Classic Modernist Marble Oval Cocktail Tulip Table. Eero Saarinen / KnollBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Buffalo, NYClassic Modernist Marble Oval Cocktail Tulip Coffee / cocktail Table. Designed by Eero Saarinen manufactured by Knoll. Stunning graining to the Italian marble.. Hand delivery avail t...Category
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMarble, Aluminum
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Mid Century Tulip TableBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Countryside, ILEero Saarinen for Knoll mid century Tulip table This dining table measures: 47.25 wide x 47.25 deep x 28.5 inches high, with a chair clearan...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Dining Room Tables
MaterialsMetal
- Mid-Century Modern White Tulip Oval Cocktail Table by Eero Saarinen for KnollBy Knoll, Eero SaarinenLocated in Philadelphia, PAAn iconic classic designed by Eero Saarinen and produced by Knoll. It features a white top with white base. Excellent overall condition. Manufactures stamp.Category
Early 2000s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsAluminum
- Vintage Tulip Coffee Table by Eero Saarinen for KnollBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Brooklyn, NYA vintage coffee table by Eero Saarinen for Knoll with white tulip base and laminate top. This icon of mid-century modern design was acquired from the family of the original owner, w...Category
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMetal
- Eero Saarinen for Knoll Mid Century Tulip Walnut Coffee TableBy Eero Saarinen, KnollLocated in Countryside, ILEero Saarinen for Knoll Mid Century Tulip Walnut Coffee Table This coffee table measures: 36 wide x 36 deep x 15.25 inches high All pieces of furniture can be had in what we call r...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Coffee and Cocktail Tables
MaterialsMetal