Annual Delaware Antiques Show 2019

landmarks, including the stainless-steel Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri; the TWA terminal building at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport; and Dulles International Airport. Like other modernist architects, he expressed his architectural aesthetic through furniture design, challenging the structural possibilities of newly available materials like molded plywood. The intention was to cause a revolution in American furniture, to, as Charles Eames famously said, “create the best for the most for the least.” The Saarinen chair pictured in fig. 4 is composed of fiberglass- reinforced plastic, plywood, chromed steel, upholstery, and latex foam. These materials were technological innovations that facilitated the designer’s curvilinear expression of midcentury modernism. Saarinen was trained at the school his father designed and directed: Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. At Cranbrook, Saarinen met Charles Eames, Harry Bertoia, Bernice Alexandra (Ray) Kaiser (later Ray Eames), and Florence Schust (later Florence Knoll)—all visionaries who crafted objects that highlighted simplicity of form, the honest use of industrial materials, and a union of art and technology. All of the midcentury modern furniture in the Winterthur collection is a direct dissemination from a Cranbrook-trained artist or designer. Far more than a school, Cranbrook was, and is, a residential community established to assert the values of aesthetic order against the disorder of an industrial society. In 1943, Eero Saarinen was hired by Knoll and Associates, which was founded by Hans G. Knoll in 1938. Like other modernists of the time, designers at the company were much invested in reimagining the possibilities of professional interiors. Florence Knoll led the innovative Planning Unit at the company between 1944 and 1965, drawing on her background in architecture to introduce notions of efficiency and space planning to modern offices. Furnishings at Knoll were designed to create streamlined, fully integrated interiors that would elevate the work experience. The firm began constructing the Saarinen 72 chair in 1951, after their incredible success with Saarinen’s womb chair. The womb chair was large, both physically and conceptually. With the introduction of the Saarinen 72 chair, Knoll added a smaller-scale form that was more like a traditional side chair. It offered greater functional flexibility for professional and business settings, which would become the basis of the company’s business model as they redefined the American office interior throughout the post-war period. Saarinen’s 72 chair, an integral component of Knoll’s office seating program, was ordered in bulk by corporations such as General Motors, CBS, and IBM. The chair was a tremendous commercial success and helped to establish Knoll as a nationally significant furniture manufacturer. Continuing its legacy, the 72 is still in production. The photograph of Winterthur’s Belknap Research Library (fig. 5) , taken about 1957, fully illustrates the modernist aesthetic in action. With the opening of his museum, Henry Francis du Pont celebrated and cultivated an appreciation for American — 101 —