Essential Design 
28 July 2022
Essential Design 
164

Florence Knoll

Executive Office credenza, model 2545 and cabinet, model 2549

Knoll International
USA, 1961 / 1976
chrome-plated steel, teak credenza: 25½ h × 74½ w × 18 d in (65 × 189 × 46 cm) cabinet: 25⅝ h × 37¼ w × 18 d in (65 × 95 × 46 cm)
estimate: $4,000–6,000
result: $4,000
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Together these examples feature a teak top from one continuous veneer. Credenza features eight drawers. Cabinet features two doors. Paper manufacturer's label to underside of cabinet ‘Knoll International 320 Park Avenue New York, N.Y. 10022 Feb 29 1976’.
literature: Knoll: A Modernist Universe, Lutz, pg. 160 discusses series

This work will ship from LAMA in Los Angeles, California.

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Each time I go East I see something you have done. It is always good, and I feel grateful to you for doing such work in a world where mediocrity is the norm.

Charles Eames in a letter to Florence Knoll

Florence Knoll 1917–2019

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Florence Knoll (née Florence Schust) was born in Michigan in 1917. As a child, she was enrolled in the Kingswood School, a division of the Cranbrook School of Art. Eliel and Loja Saarinen, parents of architect Eero Saarinen, quickly noted her talents, and she became a close friend of the family often joining them on vacations to their summer home in Finland. In 1935, Knoll studied urban planning at Columbia University and continued her degree at the Architectural Association of London from 1938 to 1939. World War II brought Knoll back to the United States where she finished her degree in architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago studying under Mies van der Rohe. After graduating, Knoll moved to Massachusetts to work in the office of Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer.

Auction Results Florence Knoll

Florence Knoll

Executive Office cabinet

estimate: $3,000–5,000

result: $17,500

Florence Knoll

custom cabinet

estimate: $5,000–7,000

result: $11,250

Florence Knoll

cabinet, model 122

estimate: $3,000–5,000

result: $10,000

Florence Knoll

Executive Office cabinet

estimate: $4,000–6,000

result: $10,000

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