Harry Bertoia – Diamond armchairs and Knoll wire furniture

The Bertoia collection includes several models that have become 20th-century design icons, including Wire chairs, Bird Chairs, Diamond armchairs, lounge chairs, and chrome-plated steel seats sometimes paired with fabric or leather cushions

Harry Bertoia Furniture – Diamond Chairs, Wire Armchairs and Knoll Design
A leading Italian-American designer, sculptor and artist of the 1950s and 1960s, Harry Bertoia is best known for his famous wire chairs produced by Knoll International. His welded steel creations, characterised by their graphic and airy lines, are now among the most iconic pieces of American modernist furniture.

The Bertoia collection includes several models that have become icons of 20th-century design, including Wire chairs, the Bird Chair, Diamond armchairs, low lounge chairs and chrome-plated steel seating, sometimes combined with fabric or leather cushions. Their lightweight structure of welded metal rods creates a distinctive interplay of transparency, allowing Bertoia’s chairs and armchairs to retain a sculptural presence without visually overwhelming the space.

Produced by Knoll International from the early 1950s onwards, Harry Bertoia’s designs quickly achieved international success and fit equally well into contemporary or traditional dining rooms, offices, reception areas, restaurants and modern interiors. Original vintage examples retain a particularly sought-after level of craftsmanship, especially in the quality of the welds, chrome plating and overall proportions.

Harry Bertoia’s work is distinguished by a remarkably free approach to metal, inherited from his sculptural practice. Unlike other designers who focused more on cabinetmaking or solid forms, Bertoia developed furniture based on line, open space and light. This wireframe aesthetic makes his chairs and armchairs instantly recognisable in the world of vintage furniture and American design.

His work naturally complements that of other designers whose furniture was produced by Knoll, such as Eero Saarinen, Florence Knoll and Mies van der Rohe, who are also represented in our selection of 20th-century modernist furniture.