$118,000
USA, c.
1952 welded steel wire 58 w x 44 d x 35¾ h in (147 x 112 x 91 cm)
The lounge chair presented on the following pages is a prototype made by Harry Bertoia as part of his wire furniture developed for Knoll in the early 1950s. This chair is a unique example and was exhibited at Knoll Associates at 720 Park Avenue in New York City in 1953 during the launch of the Bertoia furniture line.
This rare and extraordinary lounge chair is a masterpiece of experimental American chair design. In the 1940s, Bertoia was residing with his family in Venice, California and working at the office of Charles Eames on chair designs. Bertoia was utilized by the Eames office to engineer and troubleshoot the metal frames of the DCM and LCM, and is credited by some for developing the Eames wire chair forms. Harry Bertoia's design method for the wire furniture is summed up by the following, "how long are you going to sit in a chair? If it is only for an hour, you can have a small surface, possibly an erect posture . . . if you stay two hours, a larger surface because you must allow for movement." This method explains the shape of the wire chairs as they progress from the dining chairs into the small and large Diamond chairs, and to the Bird lounge chair. It is natural to see how the lounge chair offered here would be the final step in this progress. Harry's design process has been described by Val Bertoia as "intuitive engineering." The complex surface form of this chair is
Auctioneer:
Wright Auctions
Date:
2004-06-06
