In the store: Nelson and Knoll

We just put two gorgeous tables on the floor. One is an early George Nelson design for Herman Miller that has two butterfly leaves, a walnut top and ebony legs. The other is an oval rosewood by Florence Knoll that can be used as a conference table or a dining table.  The Nelson table has been fully restored, and the Knoll table is in very good vintage condition.

Herman Miller tag on George Nelson table

Florence Knoll oval rosewood table

Gorgeous grain on Knoll table

Knoll Sparrow

Earlier this year, Knoll introduced and LED light series designed by Antenna Design. Called the Sparrow, this slim new light has a very small footprint. It is available in a clamp-on or freestanding style. The line's under-cabinet fixture is called Highwire and is available in lengths up to 79 inches.

From knoll.com and interiordesign.net

Clamp-on Sparrow
knoll.com

Freestanding Sparrow
knoll.com

Sparrow in situ
knoll.com

Highwire
interiordesign.net

Charles Pollock

Charles Pollock (1930-2013) was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After moving to Ohio, his family eventually settled in Detroit, Michigan. He attended Cass Technical High School, where he studied art and design.

When he was in his mid-teens, his family relocated again, but he decided to stay in Detroit to finish his studies. During that time, he worked part time for the Chrysler Corporation, which he considered a great education in manufacturing products.

Because of his excellenet performance at Cass Tech, he received a full scholarship to the School of Art and Design at Pratt Institute in New York. While touring Pratt, George Nelson noticed one of Pollock's wire sculptures and was impressed with it. Pollock took the sculpture to Nelson's studio and presented it to the designer as a gift, telling Nelson that he would like to work for him when he graduated.

However, after graduating, Pollock was drafted into the U. S. Army, where he was chosen to be the art director of the Infantry Magazine. He also taught art classes at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Upon returning to New York, Pollock took a job with Donald Deskey, the well-known designer of the Radio City Music Hall. He soon had an opportunity to join the George Nelson Office, where he perfected the art of swaging, a technique for bending cold metal which he had started developing while still a student. Although Nelson was initially given credit for the Swag Leg Collection for Herman Miller, he eventually acknowledged Pollock as the designer.

After working for Nelson, Pollock opened his own studio in Brooklyn. Because of the success of the Swag Leg Collection, Florence Knoll began became interested in Pollock's designs and began a business relationship with him...$20 a month for rent and a small development allowance to continue working on new products. His first design for Knoll was the 657 Sling Chair. His most famous design was the Pollock Chair, released by Knoll in 1965 and still produced today.

When Florence Knoll retired in 1965, Pollock went to Europe, where he spent many years skiing, sculpting and painting. In 1982 he introduced the Penelope Chair for the Italian company Castelli. It was a major breakthrough, because it was one of the first passively ergonomic chairs produced with simple parts.

Pollock's designs were characterized by continuous curved lines, functionality and affordability. He received the IBD Bronze Medal Award, the Dutch Institution for Industrial Design award and the Pratt Institute's Excellence by Design award. His work is exhibited in many museums worldwide.

Pollock had been diagnosed in the 1950s as having bipolar disorder but had continued his design work. However, when a chair he had designed for Olivetti was never produced because of the company's financial problems, he retired from industrial design and shifted his focus to painting and sculpting.

In 2010 Jerry Helling, president of Bernhardt Design decided he wanted to meet Pollock and find out about his life, because the Pollock Chair was one of Helling's favorite designs. He found a list of 30 Charles Pollocks and began narrowing down the list till he found the designer. What resulted was a surprise to him and to Pollock: the creation of a new line of chairs and Pollock's return to industrial design at the age of 81. The CP Lounge Collection was introduced in 2012.

Pollock died in a fire at his home in Queens, NYC on Tuesday, August 20, 2013.

From bernhardtdesign.com, nytimes.com

Swag Leg Chair by Herman Miller (1958)
1stdibs.com

657 Sling Chairs by Knoll (1960)
prweb.com

Pollock Chair for Knoll (1965)
1stdibs.com

Penelope Chair by Castelli (1982)
archiproducts.com

CP Lounge Chair for Bernhardt Design (2012)
bernhardtdesign.com

Charles Pollock and Jerry Helling with the CP Lounge Chair
nytimes.com

If you have a chance, I urge you to watch this video. It tells the story of Jerry Helling's search for Charles Pollock and Pollock's subsequent return to designing furniture. It is very moving, especially in light of the recent death of the designer.

Finding Charles Pollock 

bernhardtdesign.com

Charles Pollock (1930-2013)

Charles Pollock

1930-2013

Charles Pollock, designer of the famed Pollock office chair for Knoll, died yesterday in his New York home. 

Color, beautiful color

Nothing beats a nice spash of color, and some of my favorites in our store are the fresh green of a Niels O. Møller chair and art work above it, a pair of sweet cantaloupe orange Knoll chairs, the translucent beauty of a small glass display, a watery turquoise blue Belarti table top, a cheerful collection of orange, turquoise and white wire chairs and the bright blue, orange and red in a piece of art in a neutral corner. Each vignette creates a cool visual oasis in the middle of a white-hot Texas summer.

Model 65 armchair by Neils O. Moller

Pair of orange Knoll chairs

Geometric brass dining table with assorted glass display

J. Belarti chrome and ceramic coffee table

Bend seating

Colorful art with a Gus*Modern Carmichael bed and a Robsjohn-Gibbings chair

In the pop-up shop: Platner potential

The latest acquisition to cause a stir on our Facebook page are this bronze lounge chair and ottoman designed by Warren Platner for Knoll. They are a bit faded and need to be reupholstered, but when that is done, they will truly be showstoppers.

Bronze lounge chair and ottoman by Warren Platner for Knoll

What's really exciting is imagining what these pieces are going to look like if they're redone in this Knoll boucle fabric in Pearl. I think the nubby almost-white fabric is going to look sensational against that dark bronze wire. Of course, if I were restoring it for myself, I'd be tempted by the chartreuse. What color would you choose?

Google Reader shuts down on July 1, 2013.

Barcelona, Barcelona

The other day my SIL came home with a black Barcelona chair and ottoman. While it isn't a Knoll chair, it is a very old Italian chair, probably from the 1960s, as evidenced by the flathead screws and the old label.

Italian leather Barcelona style chair and ottoman

The next day he picked up a gorgeous Knoll version in white. This one has the Knoll signature stainless steel frame.

Knoll Barcelona chair by Mies van der Rohe

Turkey time...with tulips

Turkey and pumpkin pie may be in the air, but the store is full of tulips...Eero Saarinen tulips by Knoll, to be precise. These early examples of the iconic Saarinen designs are in unbelievably good condition for their age.

The table is a rare 54" version, so some lucky buyer could be eating a huge Thanksgiving dinner in style.

Early 54" tulip table by Eero Saarinen for Knoll

Early tulip chairs by Eero Saarinen for Knoll

NOT in the store: Richard Schultz desk

Take a look at this beautiful rosewood executive desk by Richard Schultz for Knoll. My SIL sold it before he could even get it to the store, and it's so impressive that I can understand why. I would have loved seeing it, but I'm sure he was thrilled that it turned around so quickly.

Sometimes things sit for a while; sometimes they fly out the door. And sometimes they just fly.

I'm eager to get the whole story. He hadn't even mentioned to me that he had found this desk. I'm wondering if it was a grab-it-before-somebody-else-does Craigslist purchase and if someone stopped him on the street as he was loading it into his trailer and bought it on the spot. Believe me, much stranger things happen in this business.

Rosewood executive desk by Richard Schultz for Knoll

Petal power

The latest buzz around our store is about the Richard Schultz petal coffee we just put on the floor. This beautiful piece has been completely restored, with newly lacquered petals and a freshly powder coated base. The table is 42" in diameter and would look fantastic with a sectional sofa.

Richard Schultz petal coffee table

Lewis Butler for Knoll

Though not as famous as some of the designers who worked for Knoll, Lewis Butler created some lovely pieces for the company, as evidenced by the pair of lounge chairs in our store.

The chairs are a true red, even though my photos look orange. (Why is it so difficult to photograph red?) The upholstery is new and beautifully done, even though, as far as we can tell, a modification has been made from the original chairs. Apparently at some time the walnut back of these chairs became unusable...or the previous owner preferred an upholstered back. Originally, they probably would have looked something like this, with two panels of walnut behind the back cushion. (Of course, I suppose it's possible that Knoll made a version with an upholstered back, but we can only find examples of the one with walnut backs.)

Butler lounge chairs with the original backs
wright20.com

The chairs in the store have wooden backs that have been fully upholstered, and the cushions are one continuous unit, rather than two loose ones.

Lewis Butler lounge chairs for Knoll

Upholstered back

Honestly, I think I like them just as well this way, if not better. There's something very sleek and finished about the way the seat and the back are joined.

In the store: Surfaces and seating

Lately we've been buying quite a bit of new inventory, but most of it has been project pieces that are either being restored now or are in line to be refinished or reupholstered, so I haven't posted pictures in a while. We finally picked up a few things that didn't need restoration and went straight to the floor.

Just yesterday morning my SIL picked up this Knoll Cyclone table by Isamu Noguchi. It's a real beauty in excellent original condition which had been used in the break room at a local doctor's office for decades.

Knoll Cyclone table by Isamu Noguchi

Here's a great little Danish tea cart in teak that will soon have new casters. The top lifts off to be used as a tray. I had one similar to this before I got my larger glass-topped one, and I loved it. Whoever gets this one will have a little gem.

Teak tea cart with removable tray

These Danish cane-backed chairs are in great condition. I love the angled backs. If these were mine, I'd reupholster the seats in a heavy, nubby fabric and then put some sort of low, eye-catching table between them.

Danish cane-backed chairs

This is a very early Knoll Tulip table by Eero Saarinen. It has some edge wear, but at the moment we're not planning to have it refinished. This is the type piece some serious collectors prefer in original condition, so we'll probably leave the restoration decisions to the buyer.

Early Knoll Tulip table by Eero Saarinen

Paul McCobb lovers will recognize this Planner Group desk and chair immediately. The iconic pair will probably be sold quickly, as they are in high demand.

Planner Group desk and chair by Paul McCobb

The  pièce de résistance is this huge Royal System wall unit by Poul Cadovius. This baby is massive and takes up a huge section of wall in the store. It was bought in Denmark in the 1960s by a friend of my SIL's family.

Royal System wall unit by Poul Cadovius

Massimo and Lella Vignelli

Massimo (1931- ) and Lella (1934- ) Vignelli both studied architecture in their native Italy. He came to the United States in 1957 on fellowships from Towle Silversmiths in Massachusetts and the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. In 1958 she received a fellowship from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge and joined Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in Chicago as a designer in 1959.

In 1960 they returned to Italy to form the Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture in Milan. In 1965, he became the co-founder and design director of Unimark International Corporation, and she was the head of the interiors department in Milan and New York. They established the office of Vignelli Associates in 1971 and Vignelli Designs in 1978.

Their work includes corporate branding, publication design, architectural graphics, furniture and product design and has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Montreal and Die Neue Sammlung in Munich.

From vignelli.com

Vignelli chairs for Heller
3rings.designerpages.com

Dinnerware for Heller
materialicious.com

Bernini desk
vignelli.com

Convertible sofa for BK Italia
vignelli.com

Handkerchief chair for Knoll
vignelli.com

Sigaro light fixture
antiquehelper.com

Creso table
vignelli.com

CEO Cube table
bonluxat.com

Fungo table lamp for Venini
forbes.com

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