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SILVER Seller in Pistoia, Italy
Low table with a round white marble top and four metal legs from the Parallel Bar series, designed by Florence Knoll and produced by Knoll International in the 1950s. Born to a baker and orphaned at the age of twelve, Florence Schust grew up in Saginaw, Michigan. Schust showed an early interest in architecture and was enrolled at the Kingswood School for Girls, adjacent to the Cranbrook Academy of Art. While attending Kingswood, Florence befriended Eilel Saarinen, with whom she would later study at Cranbrook. Warmly welcomed by the Saarinen family, Florence went on holiday with them to Finland, enjoying the company of their most famous friends and forming a close relationship with Eliel's son, Eero. The knowledge and skills acquired at Cranbrook were the foundation of Florence Schust's incredible design education and pioneering career. Thanks to recommendations from Eliel Saarinen and Alvar Aalto, Florence went on to study with some of the greatest architects of the 20th century, including Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In 1941 Florence moved to New York where she met Hans Knoll who was founding his furniture company. Thanks to Florence's design skills and Hans' business acumen and salesmanship, the couple, who married in 1946, grew the fledgling company into an international arbiter of style and design. Florence also contributed with her friends Eero Saarinen, Harry Bertoia and Mies van der Rohe. By creating the revolutionary Knoll Planning Unit, Florence Knoll set the standard for modern corporate interiors in post-war America. Drawing on her background in architecture, she introduced modern notions of efficiency, space planning and global design to office design. Florence ardently maintained that she didn't just decorate space. She created it. The Planning Unit rigorously researched and investigated each client, assessing their needs, defining usage patterns and understanding corporate hierarchies, before presenting a complete design, informed by the principles of modernism and beautifully executed in typical Knoll style. Florence and the Planning Unit were responsible for the interiors of some of the largest American companies, including IBM, GM and CBS. As part of her work with the Planning Unit, Florence often contributed furniture designs to the Knoll catalogue. She humbly referred to her furniture designs as 'meat and potatoes', filling in the highlights of Bertoia, Mies and Saarinen. However, thanks to his attention to detail, eye for proportion and mastery of modern aesthetics, many of his designs became as revered and celebrated as those of his colleagues. After the tragic death of Hans Knoll in 1955, Florence Knoll led the company as president through uncertain times. In 1960 she left the presidency to concentrate on directing design and development, and in 1965, after pioneering an industry and defining the landscape and aesthetics of the corporate office, Florence Knoll Bassett (remarried in 1957) retired from the company. Her contribution to Knoll and the rise of modernism in America is immeasurable.
ID: 6186-1576168803-4227
