1970s Mid-Century Knoll Warren Platner Wire Glass Coffee Table

Description

A mid-century iconic, stunning, authentic original, vintage Platner circular wire glass coffee table designed by American architect and interior designer … more A mid-century iconic, stunning, authentic original, vintage Platner circular wire glass coffee table designed by American architect and interior designer Warren Platner (1919-2006) for Knoll International circa 1970’s, in the United States. (this is unmarked.) .A beautiful circular cocktail table, the table design debuted in 1966, features a steel frame wire base in original nickel finish. The sturdy open base is constructed of steel rods running vertically, welded into a circular and horizontal framing rods presented with a nickel plated finish. The underside is fitted with the original ring to prevent wobbles. The strong base is supporting a thick circular bevel glass top. A striking design, with great modern form the curvature of the base is extremely stylish. Its open, airy design will bring a breath of fresh air to any room.
Condition Report: Traces of light oxidation to steel. Overall, in good condition with only minor wear/scuffs, no chips to glass; small air bubble to the edge overall great condition.

Creator: Knoll (Manufacturer), Warren Platner (Designer)
In the Style Of: Mid-Century Modern
Place of Origin: United States
Date of Manufacture: ca 1970s
Period: 1970-1979
Materials and Techniques: Steel, glass
Condition: Good
Wear: Wear consistent with age and use
Measurements: 15 ” tall x
Diameter of glass: 42 1/8"
Wire Base:14 3/8" tall
Diameter of Wire Base top: 29"
Diameter of Wire Base Bottom: 17 1/2"


Warren Platner (1919 – 2006) of Baltimore produced a furniture collection that has proved to be a continuing icon of 1960s Modernism. He is also famed for designing several prominent interiors in New York City, including headquarter offices for the Ford Foundation building and the original Windows on the World restaurant, atop the World Trade Center. Platner graduated from Cornell University with a degree in architecture in 1941. His career began with work in some of the most prominent and remarkable architecture practices in the country. Between 1945 and 1950, he worked for Raymond Loewy and I.M. Pei. He received the Rome Prize in architecture in 1955. Platner was a part of Eero Saarinen’s office from 1960 to 1965, participating in the designs for the Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., the Repertory Theatre at Lincoln Centre and several dormitories at Yale University. During this time, he also unveiled his seminal collection of chairs, ottomans and tables.
In the 1960s, as the modernist movement became more expressive, Platner focused on a quieter aesthetic, wishing to create more graceful structures. In 1966 Platner, in collaboration with Knoll , unveiled the Platner Collection—a series of sleek modern chairs, ottomans and tables that rest on an intricately sculpted base of cylindrical steel rods replicating a moiré pattern. Requiring over 1,000 welds for one piece alone, the complex design is a close marriage of architecture and industrial design. Though Platner designed other pieces, the Platner Collection was his most renowned collection that ultimately made a name for himself in furniture design.
Platner received the Rome Prize in 1955 for his architecture designs and was inducted into Interior Design magazine’s Hall of Fame in 1985.
The trained architect Warren Platner spent 1960 –65 working for Eero Saarinen in Michigan, where he was mainly entrusted with interior design projects. Inspired by the furniture of the Louis XV period, he created a series of tables, lounge chairs and stools made of decoratively bent steel wire. He proposed his designs to Knoll in 1962 and the furniture manufacturer agreed to produce them. The technical demands were considerable: What all the designs had in common was a cylindrical pedestal assembled out of more than one hundred steel wires, necessitating over a thousand welds per model.1 The seat shell of chair No. 1715 is made of fibreglass-reinforced plastic; this rests on an elastic rubber support spanned with clips across the base, whose underside is fitted with a plastic ring to prevent wobbles. It soon joined the canon of modern furniture design and became a shining example of Platner’s own definition of a classic as a piece which, ‘every time you look at it, you accept it as it is and you can see no way of improving it’. Platner passed away in 2006 at the age of 86. less