SKU: 70008612826

FLORENCE KNOLL PARALLEL BAR LOUNGE CHAIR FOR KNOLL ASSOCIATES (d. 1955)

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Description

FLORENCE KNOLL PARALLEL BAR LOUNGE CHAIR FOR KNOLL ASSOCIATES (d. 1955)A Parallel Bar armchair in its original red Knoll fabric. Designed by Florence Knoll in 1955, the Parallel Bar System of furniture included both seating and surfaces. Conceived initially for corporate offices, it soon found its way into modern residential interiors. Valued for clean, tailored lines and superior construction, furniture designed by Florence Knoll is sought out by collectors and design enthusiasts alike. The Parallel Bar System remained

A Parallel Bar armchair in its original red Knoll fabric. Designed by Florence Knoll in 1955, the Parallel Bar System of furniture included both seating and surfaces. Conceived initially for corporate offices, it soon found its way into modern residential interiors. Valued for clean, tailored lines and superior construction, furniture designed by Florence Knoll is sought out by collectors and design enthusiasts alike. The Parallel Bar System remained in continuous production until 1973.

Two available; priced individually.


FLORENCE KNOLL BASSETT (1917–2019, née Schust) was an American architect, designer, and entrepreneur. She was born in 1917 in Saginaw, Michigan. Orphaned as a child, she was educated at the Kingswood School for girls, one of the Cranbrook Schools cofounded by philanthropists George and Ellen Booth along with Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. The Saarinens all but adopted Knoll; she summered with the family in Finland and befriended son Eero. Saarinen encouraged Knoll to enroll at Cranbrook's Academy of Art, where she focused on architecture until 1939, with intervals of study at Columbia and the Architectural Association in London. In 1940, she was placed under the tutelage of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe at the Armour Institute (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) and also apprenticed for architects Marcel Breuer and Walter Gropius—all three of whom were pillars of the Bauhaus school. Van der Rohe would remain a lifelong mentor. The next year, she moved to NYC and worked for the architectural firm of Harrison & Abramovitz, through whom she met furniture manufacturer and retailer Hans Knoll. He recruited her as head of the Knoll Planning Unit and, in 1946, they were married. That same year, the company changed its name to KNOLL ASSOCIATES.

Knoll was an enthusiastic and influential champion of well-known Bauhaus designers and architects, as well as newcomers such as Harry Bertoia. As a designer in her own right, she created tables, chairs, sofas, and storage solutions for KNOLL. She was also a major proponent of both ergonomics in interior space planning and the thorough integration of furniture with architecture. She was instrumental in selling the American public on modernist design and had a talent for persuading business executives to hire her firm to transform their offices. Her marketing experiences led her to coin the company’s motto: “Good design is good business.”

In 1951, the company was renamed Knoll International, and it expanded its business overseas. Upon her husband's death in 1955, Knoll took over as president. Three years later, she married banker Henry Hood Bassett. Knoll Bassett served as Director of Design at KNOLL until her retirement in 1965. She was honored with a National Medal of Arts in 2002. She donated her design archive to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C., in 2004. Knoll died in 2019 at the age of 101.


KNOLL was founded eponymously in 1938 in a small space on East 72nd Street in New York City as the Hans G. Knoll Furniture Company. Hans Knoll was born in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1914, into the successful furniture-making family behind Walter Knoll & Co. Early 20th-century Germany was a nexus of modernist design theory, which held that design should be rooted in the principles of rationality, functionalism, and mass production. It was notably expressed in the products and practices of the Deutscher Werkbund association of artists and industrialists and the influential Bauhaus school. This milieu had a lasting influence on Knoll, inspiring him to produce furniture for the new age. In 1937, after a stint in London, he moved to the US, bringing the modernist vision with him.

Launched as an import business, the Hans Knoll Furniture Company soon pivoted to manufacturing. Its first plant was opened in a former dance hall in East Greenville, Pennsylvania, in 1941, the year that Danish designer Jens Risom was hired. Risom would help with the development of the first, original KNOLL designs. Also in 1941, Hans met Florence Schust on an interior design project and, recognizing her exceptional taste and eye, hired her to court business with architects and interior designers and, later, to provide in-house planning and interior design expertise for a corporate clientele. In 1946, they were married, and the company was renamed KNOLL ASSOCIATES.

That same year, the Knoll Planning Unit was established to solidify the company’s role in interior design. In 1951, KNOLL ASSOCIATES changed its name to Knoll International, and its German and French arms were launched, producing designs especially for European markets. In 1955, Hans died in a tragic car crash; his widow remained actively involved in the company until her 1965 retirement ten years later.

KNOLL’s signature pieces include Marcel Breuer’s Wassily chair (1925), Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair (1929/1948), Harry Bertoia’s Diamond chair (1952), and Eero Saarinen’s Tulip armchair (1957); as well as Florence‘s own furniture collection, developed through the 1950s. The impressive KNOLL catalog includes a who’s who list of midcentury and contemporary design figures, including Jens Risom, Alexander Girard, George Nakashima, Isamu Noguchi, Richard Schultz, Warren Platner, Charles Pollock, Andrew Morrison & Bruce Hannah, Vignelli Associates, Richard Sapper, Maya Lin, Frank Gehry, and Rem Koolhaas. Today KNOLL is especially focused on meeting the changing needs of the 21st-century workplace.

Hans Knoll was given the National Design Award for Corporate and Institutional Achievement by NYC's Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in 2011, in recognition of his legacy in American modern design and the emphasis of his work on the connection between design and quality of life. KNOLL pieces can be found in the permanent collections of institutions around the world; more than thirty have been acquired by New York’s MoMA.


I needed a piece of furniture. It was not there, so I designed it. – FLORENCE KNOLL BASSETT


DETAILS

Designer – FLORENCE KNOLL

Design Period/Year – 1955

Maker – KNOLL ASSOCIATES

Production Period/Year – 1950s

Origin – USA

Styles/Movements – MID-CENTURY MODERN

Materials – CHROME; FABRIC; STEEL

Colors – RED

Condition – Good vintage condition with some imperfections consistent with age and use. Some fading to the fabric and minor scuffs to the steel.

Dimensions – 31" W × 31" D × 30" H

Seat Dimensions – 24" W × 20" D × 16" H

Arm Height – 21"

Number of Seats – 1

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SKU: 70008612826

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4.6 ★★★★★
Based on 19 reviews
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Verified Purchase
Jose Correa
Lexington, US
★★★★★ 5
Stunning Automatic Watch With TopTier Durability and Precision
Color: Grey
“I got this Tissot PRX for my cousin’s birthday and bro fell in LOVE instantly. This thing keeps time like a beast, never slows down, never lags. Automatic movement, so no batteries, no drama. Durability? Stupid good. You can hit it, bump it, live life rough, it still looks box fresh. Size wise it was almost perfect. I just had to remove two links, nothing big. It’s light, functional, comfortable, doesn’t weigh you down, doesn’t get in the way but more importantly I can say this watch is in everyone’s eyesight when we wear it. Cause of course I had to get another one! Basically. I gave him a very nice piece as a gift, and now he’s walking around like he owns Switzerland.
WAS THIS REVIEW HELPFUL?YesReportShare
Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2025
C
Verified Purchase
Cienfuegos
Pawtucket, US
★★★★★ 5
Great watch!!!!
Color: Grey
Excellent quality, one of the best, elegant.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2026
T
Verified Purchase
T. H.
Battle Creek, US
★★★★★ 5
Excellent value for an automatic watch, keeps VERY good time.
Color: Grey, Color: Grey
I've only had the watch for a day but wanted to leave a quick review on it to share a couple of notes. So far it keeps VERY good time, better than any of the automatics I own (including a Rolex Submariner, Tag Heuer Aquaracer, Tag Heuer Formula One, and several other sub $1k watches). I set it to an atomic time app on my phone yesterday and 24 hours later it's still SPOT on - hasn't gained/lost even a 1/10 of a second. I was shocked to see it's kept PERFECT time for the last day, I'm really blown away so far. I've worn it the entire time, we'll see how well it keeps time while being stored in a winder. This picture shown is the watch with a 22mm leather band on it, fit's without any issues (just need to squeeze in the leather a tad). I doubt it would work with a 22mm metal bracelet, but leather works great. Just FYI since the 21mm lug width is kind of odd. The face isn't quite a lustrious as the images make it look, but it's still a great-looking watch. For a sub $1000 automatic you can't go wrong, this is a fantastic watch at a great price. It'll be my daily driver for some time I'm sure. If I have any issues in the future I'll update the review.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2021
B
Verified Purchase
Beniamin Grigoryan
Whiting, US
★★★★★ 5
It looks really cool and striking.
Color: Grey, Color: Grey
Really cool and beautiful watch. Although my specific unit runs 5 seconds fast every day—at first it’s annoying, but eventually you stop caring. 🤣
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Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2026
P
Verified Purchase
Paul Andreini
Los Angeles, US
★★★★★ 5
A Beautiful Timepiece at an Awesome Price!!
Color: Grey, Color: Grey
I have lusted after this watch for four months. I first tried on a similar model (stainless steel band with a green face) in a local jewelry shop (Spitz Jewlers, Walnut Creek, CA, USA). It was "love at first sight," even if I didn't love the white lines on the face from 12-6 and 3-9. At the time, the MSRP was $775. The MSRP has since increased to $795. But I bought this beauty on Amazon.com for only $524.99; after applying the cash-back from my Prime credit card, this watch costs only $498.75. This was "the offer that I could not refuse," to quote from "The Godfather." Accuracy could be better: after only a few days, it is now 7 seconds behind my phone (to which I set my new watch). But I don't really care about that all that much. This is why I rated "accuracy" at 4 stars, but my overall review is 5 stars. My video shows the date changing suddenly at 11:59:59pm, just how I want it; in another photo, you can see that my Seiko changes the date more slowly, which I do not like. This watch is absolutely phenomenally beautiful. If you're on the fence over whether to make this purchase, then I would say "go for it!" You will not find a prettier, more accurate watch at a lower price in ANY store in the entire USA.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 28, 2023

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