Wright Auction

The present lot is a prototype designed by Harry Bertoia as part of his wire furniture collection, developed for Knoll in the early 1950s. It was exhibited at Knoll Associates at 720 Park Avenue, New York City, in 1953 during the launch of the Bertoia furniture line. This rare and extraordinary lounge chair is a masterpiece of experimental American design.

In the 1940s, Bertoia lived with his family in Venice, California, while working in Charles Eames’ office on chair designs. There, he was responsible for engineering and troubleshooting the metal frames of the DCM and LCM chairs, and some even credit him with developing the Eames wire chair forms. Bertoia captured his design philosophy with a simple question: “How long are you going to sit in a chair? If it’s only for an hour, a small surface and an upright posture might suffice. But if you sit for two hours, a larger surface is needed to allow for movement.” This idea drove the evolution of his designs, from the dining chairs to the small and large Diamond chairs, and ultimately to the Bird lounge chair. It’s natural to see how the lounge chair offered here represents the culmination of Bertoia’s design process, which Val Bertoia aptly described as “intuitive engineering.”

This rare and extraordinary lounge chair is a masterpiece of experimental American design.

The complex surface form of this chair is remarkable for its refinement and intricacy, achieved decades before CAD programs simplified such processes. While loosely guided by ergonomic principles, the lounge chair was created primarily through Bertoia’s innate ability to visualize and produce functional, sculptural forms. The wire material was ideal for Bertoia, given his expertise as a metalworker, and he found it fascinating that air and light interacting with the ethereal material completed the form. To refine the chair further, designer Don Petitt, who was assisting on the project, was tasked with making the form symmetrical. Petitt recalls: “Eventually, I started working on Harry’s projects, and I made all of the final prototypes—or master baskets, as they’re called in the industry. When Harry made them freehand, the left side may not have been identical to the right, even though they looked the same. But when you began to measure it... the wires were supposed to be the same length. So I had to make them symmetrical.”

This revolutionary design, using innovative materials, was a radical departure from the heavy-handed furniture styles of the early 20th century. However, Knoll ultimately abandoned the idea of producing this chair due to its complexity. The cost of production would have made the chair too expensive for most consumers, counter to the prevailing idea of design for the masses.

This prototype remained with the Bertoia family for many years. Brigitta Bertoia used the chair in the yard of their home in Barto, Pennsylvania, and later, she and Harry gifted it to their daughter, Lesta, as a wedding present. In 2004, the chair was sold at Wright’s Modernist 20th Century auction and it has remained in a private collection until now. The chair's introduction to the market in 2004, did however, attract Knoll’s attention. With permission, two industrial designers meticulously measured and mapped the chair using a combination of computer modeling and a traditional plumb bob. Based on these measurements, Knoll reintroduced the design as the Bertoia Asymmetric Chaise Lounge in July 2005. The first production run sold out within days.