Refinish, restore, remember…

Grasshopper Chair for Knoll by Eero Saarinen – 1946.   This chair, lovingly referred to as the “Grasshopper”, was designed by Saarinen for Knoll and was produced from the late 1940s (in the webbed finish you see here) until the early 1960s (in an upholstered finish).  It was not a successful model for Knoll and was produced in limited numbers.   My chair is missing the Ottoman – I am keenly interested in locating an original to complete the set.   Saarinen is best known in the furniture world for the "Womb" chair and “Tulip” chair (which incidentally was the basis for the chairs in the original “Star Trek” series).   Both chairs are still produced by Knoll today and are available at numerous high-end modern furniture stores.  You might recognize Saarinen's name as he also designed the St. Louis arch after finding success as a furniture "architect".   The only other webbed version of this chair that I have been able to find on the past months is/was part of the Yale school of design/architecture's collection.  This basic design is also the basis for a lower quality knock-off that has been featured around the way in recent times.  

The story of this particular chair is fairly interesting.    I came to find this chair in “before” condition in late 2010.   The previous owner is/was one of the most active collectors of mid-century furniture in the U.S.    He was tragically and seriously injured and moved to Minnesota for long-term care.   As a result of his injury, his family made the tough decision to sell his vast collection, including this chair, as well as the Wyoming Ranch.    The ranch was originally the property of Bill Cody, of “cowboy” fame, and is now owned by Bill Gates, of “that Bill Gates” fame.  I suspect that the seller was hoping for a higher price, but I also purchased a few other items from him at the same time and was also able to find a few friends who took additional items.   Also, he could see that I really wanted to have this chair not to flip, but to rework and keep.   It probably didn’t hurt that we both share an affinity for old Land Rovers and could share some stories about quirky British automobile design. 

As with the Hove chairs, this is a bent plywood design, birch to be exact.  The refinishing was fairly basic, but complicated slightly as the chair had been exposed to some water while in storage.  This required some basic bleaching.  In most cases, this stain would scare me off, but the work was not that complicated and the story of the chair made the slight flaw endearing.   In addition, the webbing is attached to the frame with brass tacks, a lot of brass tacks…too many brass tacks.   The putty work was significant.   The project required only a few days of manual work, but the webbing proved to be somewhat difficult.   Knoll currently sells a chair designed by Jens Risom (whom we will visit at another time) that uses a similar webbing.   However, this webbing is sold in pieces that are cut specifically for the chair.  Luckily, the master craftsman with whom I trusted the webbing side of the project was able to work his relationship with the Knoll rep to secure “correct” webbing in a form that allowed for the project to leave the chair in the form the original designer intended.  It is worth noting the difference between the original webbing and the renewed webbing – while both are proper Knoll and made from the same materials, the old webbing is nowhere near as resilient as the new technology.

This is another case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder.  This chair needed some love and got it, and is now back to form, albeit with a little “scar” that also shows some character and serves as a reminder of where this chair has been.     

As with the Hove chairs I previously posted, I don’t really care what this is “worth” as I am not looking to move it, but it is interesting.   I am into this chair for ~$1300, which is a lot for one chair (for me).   I have found very few of these in the market.   The best comp is currently being sold by a prominent auction house, is in need of refinishing and major reupholstering/cushion work, and is going for $4,200.