Eero Saarinen, Tulip table for Knoll

EERO SAARINEN (Finland, 1910 - USA, 1961) for HACHE FURNITURE for KNOLL International.
Circular coffee table "Tulip", design 1956.
Mounted on a white lacquered base. Marble top.
1970's edition.
Exhibits wear consistent with age and use.
Measurements: 74 cm (height) x 137 cm (tabletop).

Towards 1955 Eero Saarinen designs a collection of furniture for Knoll International in which the four legs of the tables and chairs disappear, since the designer considered them unsightly. This was to become known as the Tulip Collection, now one of the international icons of 20th century design.

Saarinen initially studied sculpture at the Académie de la Grand Chaumière in Paris, and later architecture at Yale University. He then furthered his studies in Europe thanks to a scholarship, and upon his return he took up a teaching position at Cranbrook Academy, one of the most important architecture and industrial design schools in the United States. In 1937 he began designing furniture in collaboration with Charles Eames, winning the 1940 prize in the "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Later, as an independent, Saarinen will create furniture designs for the firm Knoll International. As an architect, Saarinen became famous for his spaces with curved lines, especially in the roofs of his buildings, with which he managed to give them a great lightness. One of his most representative and well-known buildings is the TWA terminal at J. F. Kennedy Airport in New York. His designs are currently present in the most important collections around the world, including that of the MoMA in New York.