Design Market – Eero Saarinen

[13.05.2008]

 

– Biography
– How to buy or sale Tulip models
-The hammer price

Biography

Born in 1910, the son of celebrated Finnish architect / designer (and President of the Cranbrook Academy of Art), Eliel Saarinen, Eero emigrated with his family to the United States in 1923.
He initially studied sculpture in Paris in 1929-1930, and later architecture at Yale University until 1934. After 1936, he returned to his father’s practice and began working with Charles Eames in 1937. Together, they produced a series of highly progressive and prize-winning furniture designs for The Museum of Modern Art’s 1940 “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” competition including, among other pieces, a molded plywood wrap-around chair covered with foam rubber and fabric. This prototype, still somewhat upright in shape, blossomed into the more harmonious forms of the Womb Chair (1948) that Eero Saarinen designed for Knoll International, his principal furnisher editor. Together, they also designed the emblematic La Chaise, a fibre glass meridian seat on a metal base that wasn’t actually produced until 1991 (by Vitra).

Voir les catalogues de vente du mobilier d’Erro Saarinen

In 1956, Knoll International issued Saarinen’s Tulip collection, a veritable icon of 1950/60s organic furniture. With single trumpet-bell metal bases supporting shell-like structures, the collection offered a harmonious solution to the relationship between base and body. He applied the same principle to a whole series of tables, chairs, armchairs, stools, ashtrays and servers. Indeed, with this collection he achieved one of his principal objectives: to rid the home of “that miserable jumble of legs”.
Later on, other designers adopted his style, such as Panton with his Panthella lamps (edited since 1971 by Louis Poulsen), or Erwine and Estelle Laverne with their Champagne collection (designed in 1957 and edited by Laverne International and Formes Nouvelles).At the architectural level, one of his most celebrated projects is the Detroit and TWA Terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Started in 1956, it was completed 1962, a year after his death.

How to buy or sale Tulip models

A large number of Eero SAARINEN‘s best furniture designs are still edited by Knoll International. Thus, according to the company’s catalogue, one can still acquire a Tulip chair for $1093 (without tax) and a table from the same series for $1409 (without tax). Since the offer is continually being fed by production, demand for vintage elements designed by Eero Saarinen has remained stable over recent years, albeit at a high level. One would expect to pay 150 – 200 euros for a non-pivoting Tulip chair, and 230-300 for a pivoting model. If the pieces are in very good condition, and particularly if sold in sets of 4 or 6, then one would expect to pay up to 3 or 4 hundred euros per piece.Beware of counterfeits. With the success of the Tulip series, a lot of copies, often Italian or Asian, are on the market. So here are a few tips to avoid buying a fake:

– Models edited by Knoll have the Knoll International stamp under the base
– The shell of chair backs is fibre-glass resin and not plastic
– The bases are made of aluminium and not steel
– The feet are covered with Rilsan (plasticized paint) and not gloss or paint

Do not be put off by models with torn seats. An upholsterer will be able to restore the seat to its original condition using kvadrat (Knoll fabric) for 75 – 150 euros. As far as the bases are concerned, restoration of the plasticized covering is more difficult. Ask a vehicle bodywork garage for a quote.

The hammer price
Estimates Comments Categories Sales ImageEUR 2 000 – 3 000 A seating group designed 1955-1956, executed 1960s comprising eight model. Chairs, tables and one hocker marked with knoll Marks. Various imperfections2 Table with lacquered wood oval tops (137cm)
2 hockers
swivel chairs (5 cream, 4 white)
qwifel hockers with padded seats

24 May 2006
Sotheby’s (Amsterdam) – 20th Century Decorative Arts & Design
EUR 2 000 – 2 500 Mobilier de salle à manger ” modèle Tulipe ” enfonte d’aluminium et plastique moulé blanc, se composant d’une table à plateau rond enbois et d’une suite quatre chaises ” tulipe ” et quatre fauteuils (accident).1 Table (diam. 106 cm)
4 chaises
4 fauteuils

17 March 2005
Tajan (Paris) – ARTS DÉCORATIFS DU 20E SIÈCLE
EUR 530 – 635Softbord “tulip”, for Knoll Intenational, USA,, Rund vit marmorskiva, pa centralfot av vitlackerad aluminium1 Table (diam. 91,5 cm)

13 – 23 April 2006
Bukowskis (Stockholm) – Contemporary & Design
USD 800 – 1 100A pair of original Eero Saarinen Armchairs upholstered in yellow vinyl, set on four bent walnut legs. Made ny Knoll International c.19602 chaises

27-29 June2006
Webb’s (Auckland) – A three day sales of fine art, Jewellery and Decorative Arts
EUR 2 600 – 3 000Fauteuil “Womb” et son ottoman – 1948. Pietement en métal laqué noir, structure en fibre de verre moulée, garnie de mousse et recouverte de tissu orange. Edition Knoll International.1 Fauteuil 89x95x84 cm
1 Ottoman 38x69x53cm

29 June 2006
Artcurial (Paris) – Design