Dating a Knoll Womb Chair

[javadog]

Ok, not talking about taking one out for drinks and dinner...

I have an older (I think) Knoll Womb Chair and I've searched the net for information about how to determine when it was made and haven't come up with much. No labels remain, all I can determine is that it has "early" style feet. No idea when "early" changed to "late."

I seem to recall that there are a few people here that have some expertise in mid-century modern furniture, thus the query.

Anybody have any knowledge of these, or could point me to a resource I can search?

Anybody have recommendations as to where to sell one? Ebay doesn't look promising.

Thanks,
JR

[vash]

pics please!!

this point in my life, i am buying my Mid Century stuff from Crate and Barrel.

[javadog]

I have spent a few hours on the designaddict.com site and read through the relevant threads there, but I haven't really found any answers to my questions. I've also contacted Knoll and, while they think it is one of theirs, they don't really get involved in identifying used pieces. I thought that between the foot design and the fabric, I could maybe date it to a particular decade. The problem with that is there only seems to be a couple different designs used for the feet (and I haven't found any date where they switched from one to the other) and they offer a bewildering array of fabrics now and God knows what they offered in the past that's not a current offering. I've seen a couple versions of the loops and buckles for the cushions, but nothing definite as to which version was used when...

Photos:

[javadog]

****ing i-phone sideways photos...

The lack of a beaded seam on the body tells me it's "1970's or earlier", as opposed to the "1970's and later" design which had a joint in the fabric all around the perimeter of the body. I think the feet are the earlier design, too. But, that's as far as I've gotten...

[javadog]

Actually, the welds are consistent with others that I have seen that still have the original tags. I have seen later versions (1980's) that had a different weld pattern.

I've sent an inquiry to the Knoll museum, we'll see what they say. Apparently there used to be a guy that was able to tell you everything about one of these but he died last year...

JR

[Rich76_911s]

I have a friend who worked for Knoll for about 10 years and subsequently ran his own design firm around the corner from them.

He's retired now and one of the members of the board at Contact Us - Harry Bertoia Foundation

Happens to be a Porsche guy as well.

Bertoia was another designer that worked with knoll, and I think if you reach out to them, they'd probably be able to point you in the right direction.

[Scott Douglas]

Does this help?

[javadog]

From what I understand, Apple wants you to take photos in a landscape orientation, if you take one in a portrait orientation, it displays it in landscape mode. Idiots, those folks at Apple...

[javadog]

Just heard back from Knoll, they have no idea of the date...

Ah well, now I shall ponder what to do with it.

JR

[javadog]

They claim it as one of theirs, but they don't have anyone on staff that knows the timeline of the details. I'm pretty sure it's not from the 50's, most likely it's from the 1960's or 1970's, definitely not from the 1980's or later. It's a shame someone yanked the tags off of it, as those can help date the pieces, as the company name and address had minor changes, which helps nail down an approximate date. I think the fabric may be original, as it's pretty high quality and the cover is hand-sewn onto the chair, sans beading/welting. Who knows?

I've looked at some auction results and would expect it to be worth 2.5k to 3.5k. It's hard to find an older example that has fabric that isn't faded or abraded, foam that isn't hard or deteriorating, etc. Prices under that range tend to be for chairs that are missing an ottoman, or a smaller size, or not great condition. There's a recent sale on eBay for $1,500 for one that needed a total restoration. Recovering one of these at one of the places that does these restorations correctly, in Knoll fabric, will run about $1,500. You can get the work done cheaper, but they'll be cutting some corners.

I should sell it to Vash. It's red, which is a good color in the Chinese decorating world.

Feel free to drive down here and buy it, though. I'd sell it to anybody...

[javadog]

Here's one that sold on Ebay two weeks ago for $1,500:

[Scott Douglas]

I've gotta ask, is it comfortable to sit in?

[javadog]

Absolutely. It's a fantastic chair for listening to music, or reading a book. The shape is the best part; the padding is nice but it's the shape of it that makes the most difference. The designer, Eero Saarinen, created quite a few prototypes before he got the design right. He's one of the more famous designers in the world, from the middle of the last century. Everybody has seen his work, whether they recognize it or not.

[javadog]

I took a look at 1stdibs.com but you have to be an established shop to sell there. Prices there are quite a bit higher than what I was estimating.

[jwasbury]

I was going to mention 1stdibs as a place to sell as I have drooled over George Nakashima pieces for sale there...don’t feel wealthy enough to pull the trigger on anything though. Didn’t realize its not open to any seller though.

I can offer one suggestion for dating the chair: you might see if you can get someone from Rago Brothers Auctions (Lambertville NJ) to help. These folks do mid century modern auctions several times a year and the proprietor sometimes appears on PBS Antiques Roadshow and one of their experts.

[jwasbury]

Correction, not Rago Brothers, just Rago auctions

Home | Rago Auctions

[javadog]

I didn't do any more research today, maybe tomorrow or the next day.

[javadog]

For $9800, I could make that lamp...

Maybe even $8,800 ...

[javadog]

I have way too much stuff. I'm trying to downsize from over 4000 ft.² to less than 2000, something's got to go...

[javadog]

Drive down here in a pick up truck and I'll sell you the chair. I'll even teach you how to do the woodworking necessary to build that lamp.