Vintage Knoll Bertoia Bird lounge chair by Hary Bertoia, white finish, sold ‘AS IS’ for $550. Needed repair would cost under $100 (details below). The finish is in excellent vintage condition.

New Bertoia Bird chair retails for $2700 (http://www.yliving.com/knoll-bertoia-bird-lounge-chair.html).

Betoia Bird high-back chair is the part of Bertoia’s 1952 iconic seating collection sculpted from bent metal rods. Bertoia Bird is a design classic, still in production by Knoll and part of the MoMA design collection. It enhances any environment.

Sitting in the chair produces a sensation of floating. Rubber shock mounts are elastic and allow for rocking motion. The chair is extremely ergonomic thus comfortable.

Designer
Harry Bertoia for Knoll, 1952
http://www.knoll.com/products/product.jsp?prod_id=63

Dimensions
height: 38
seat height: 14.5
depth: 32 in
width: 38 in

Construction
Frame is welded steel rods with white finish.

Frame is scratch, chip and chemical resistant with stainless steel connections and four plastic glides.

The seat is suspended on top of the base by rubber shock mounts.

Condition
The finish is in excellent vintage condition.

Brand new, original Knoll replacement shock mounts.

As this is the case with most vintage Bertoia wire furniture, this chair needs 3 or 4 repair welds in the area around rubber shock mounts (see photos below). The repair would cost under $100 (see details below). This is a very common repair for vintage Bertoia chairs and it is virtually guaranteed to bring the chair back to normal functioning. I have 5 vintage Bertoia side chairs that are repair-welded and they are functioning as intended for many years now.

I was in touch with a welder (metal sculptor) in Red Hook, Brooklyn but never got around to actually take the chair to the shop to be be repaired. Here is part of my e-mail correspondence with the welder in response to the photos of the damage:

“In order to weld I’ll have to grind the area near the points of contact, therefore the finish coating will be disturbed. I usually charge $10-20 per weld, depending on complexity.

Thanks."

I can pass the welder’s contact info onto you.

Harry Bertoia
1915-1978, Italy
(shown in the photo below)

Italian sculptor, university lecturer and furniture designer Harry Bertoia displayed a unique stroke of genius with his patented Diamond Chair for Knoll International in 1952. Bertoia was an inventor of form and an enricher of furniture design with his introduction of a new material: he turned industrial wire rods into a design icon. Educated at Detroit Technical High School, the Detroit School of Arts and Crafts and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Bertoia taught metal crafts at Cranbrook. He worked with Charles Eames to develop his signature molded plywood chairs. Eero Saarinen commissioned him to design a metal sculptured screen for the General Motors Technical Center in Detroit. His awards include the craftsmanship medal from the American Institute of Architects, as well as AIA’s Gold Medal.

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OTHER DESIGNER FURNITURE ITEMS FOR SALE

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Goes well with: Starck, Eames, Saarinen, Mies Van de Rohe, Knoll, Cassina, Driade, Artemide, Modern, Contemporary, vintage, retro, classic, Design Within Reach, Mid Century, mid-century modern, Cherner, Saarinen, dwr, modernica, ddc, danish modern, ligne roset, ABC, armani casa, memmi, calvin klein, maura starr, bo concept, 1960s, 1970s, Corbusier, Moss, Ikea, Minimalist, B&B Italia, Vitra, Moss, Cappellini, Unicahome, Troy, Hivemodern, Bludot, Herman Miller, CB2 …

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