WOMB chair, Eero Saarinen (Knoll Int., 1948)

In my opinion this one is THE ultimate chair, or at least has been the chair I've always wanted to have (although I admite that there are quite a few of them, as well as I have too many favourite Art Nouveau or Art Deco buildings in Madrid).

Well, last Spring we were having a walk in the old part of The Other City (where The Other House is) and found an antique store we had never seen before which was run by this impressive pin-up looking girl… First thing I saw -appart from her amazing leoppard print high-heels- was this chair but said nothing to Carlos -I'd always wanted one in red, not in green :)-. We looked around for a while and found some amazing pieces of furniture and objects. After commenting about a wonderful 1950s chest of drawers intended to keep blueprints for an architect (that was too beautiful but also too big and a little bit expensive), he asked me “about the green chair at the entrance” so after I told him it was a Saarinen's Womb from 1948 his eyes became big as plates and run to take a look at it! We asked the girl about its price and she mentioned quite a good one but still a four digit number… “BUT I’ve got a simmilar one with an unnoticeable tear on one side, for right half its price…” and this time it was a very nice and appealing three digit number… Ooooooooooooooh my! As we were still thinking about it she took a friend of hers –who happened to arrive pay a visit when we were there- and they both went to her storage place next street and brought the chair… the tear was almost invisible! So we didn’t think it twice and now it lives in the living room at The Other House (looking beautiful by its two amazing LADY room-mates… http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/128930-lady-chair-and-sofa-marco-zanusso-arfl?in=collection-2677). On pic. 4 you can see it also has some great lamp room-mates...

The Womb chair is an absolute classic. It was designed by Eero Saarinen between 1946 and 1948 and was –and still is- produced by Knoll International. At the Knoll website they say “Eero Saarinen designed the groundbreaking Womb Chair at Florence Knoll's request for "a chair that was like a basket full of pillows, "something I could really curl up in."” And I really think he absolutely fullfilled her desire.

It is still made nowadays although the “original edition” that started in 1948 was discontinued in 1993, and it was later reissued, and this is the Womb chair they’re now selling in the shops. Although the chair was made in a myriad of bright colours, nowadays Knoll is only making it in five colours for the chair and ottoman set ( black –Black Iris-, medium gray –Smoke-, light gray -Neutral-, blue -Aegean- and the classic Womb in red -Cayenne-) whereas for the ottoman there are two more colours: light brown -Flax- and dark brown -Pumpernickel-.

Also the legs seem to have been made in several finishings: chromed, matte chrome, black and I’ve just seen a white one online.
Here’s the page for this chair at the Knoll website: http://www.knoll.com/product/womb-chair-with-ottoman (and believe me, what we paid was much, much less than the price on their website)

I’ll try and search when was made this green one. I'm pretty sure it's not from the 50s , the 60s nor even the 70s... but most probably from between the 1980s and 1993.

By the way, on pic.2 you can see different size versions for this design, as well as an early model or prototype with big feet. On pic.3, you can see Saarinen and his wife sat at the Womb chair. I loved this picture when I saw it so I really really had to share it with you!