70s Harry Bertoia dining chairs for Knoll set/6

Designer
Harry Bertoia
Manufacturer
Knoll
Period
1970's
Origin
USA
Material
Fabric, Metal
Color
black, Grey
Code
04200121ZST
Condition
Good condition consistent with age and use. Fabric good, only two cushions with minor spots.
Dimensions
53cm (w) x 57,5cm (d) x 75,5cm (h) | seath 45cm
WS
A - B
Price
Sold, located Francheville
Provenance
See writing below

Designer Harry Bertoia was born in San Lorenzo, Italy in 1915 and passed away in 1978 in Barto Pennsylvania. He settled in the United States in 1930, and went on to study at the Society of Arts and Crafts in Detroit, Michigan (1936) and the Cranbrook Academy of Art in nearby Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (1937-1939). At the latter, he encountered Walter Gropius, Edmund N. Bacon, and Charles and Ray Eames; he also taught metalworking and jewelry design (1937-1942) and graphics (1943) at the school.

In 1943, Bertoia moved to California to work with Charles and Ray Eames for the Evans Product Company. While there, he also took welding classes at Santa Monica City College, and began to create his first welded sculptures. In 1950, at the invitation of Florence Knoll, he re-settled in Bally, Pennsylvania, where he opened his own furniture and sculpture studio. His furniture designs from this period incorporated welded and molded wire, and included several pieces for the furniture manufacturer Knoll International.

The most famous, the Diamond chair (1952-53), featured an organically shaped diamond-like shell seat made of chromium-plated steel wire; it was designed to be viewed from all sides, like a sculpture. Knoll marketed multiple versions of this chair, and the royalties Bertoia received as a result allowed him to devote himself primarily to his sculpture.

Harry Bertoia designed a series of chairs and seats made of steel frame, the ”predominantly consist of air” as the designer himself, the Bertoia chair and Diamond Char are the best known of these designs. Meanwhile applicable design classics, the designs are symbolic of the innovative design of the 50s and its inventor Harry Bertoia. The Bertoia chair is made of steel wire which is hand drawn in a highly complicated procedure and hand-welded. Through the industrial material and flowing form of the Bertoia chair acts as a sculptural work of art whose delicate silhouette seems to conceal on the starch and stability of the construction.

This set of black lacquered metal has original knoll cushions in grey fabric. Set in good condition consistent with age and use.

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