The Tulip Chair is Eero Saarinen’s 1955–57 pedestal chair for Knoll, which has made it continuously since 1957. Knoll lists it from $3,871, and lookalikes of it are sold everywhere. This guide covers what Saarinen was solving, how to tell a licensed Knoll chair, what the law protects, and how to own one. We do not recommend or link lookalikes of this design.
Why the pedestal base is the whole point
Saarinen designed the Tulip Chair between 1955 and 1957, as part of what he called the Pedestal Collection, a group that included chairs, armchairs, and tables, all built on single-column bases. His stated problem, as documented in Knoll’s archives and quoted in Brian Lutz’s Eero Saarinen: Furniture for Everyman (powerHouse Books, 2012), was the visual noise produced by furniture undercarriages: “The undercarriage of chairs and tables in a typical interior makes an ugly, confusing, unrestful world. I wanted to clear up the slum of legs. I wanted to make the chair all one thing again.”
The pedestal base was not a styling choice but the end of a five-year project, and what Saarinen was actually trying to remove from the room explains why he thought four legs were the problem.
The original intent was a single piece of molded fiberglass, chair and base as one form. That didn’t work. Fiberglass prototypes failed structurally at the base. The solution was a cast aluminum base coated in Rilsan, a nylon-based powder coat applied to match the shell’s color and surface, producing the appearance of material continuity between two different components. Saarinen received his patent in 1960; the chair received the Design Award of the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1969.
That illusion, two materials reading as one, is also what lookalikes most often fail to hold. A steel or plastic base with a thin painted finish gives it away at arm’s length. Knoll’s coated cast aluminum holds it up close.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I tell if a Tulip Chair is an authentic Knoll?
Check the base first: Knoll’s is cast aluminum with a Rilsan coating, noticeably heavier than steel or plastic, and it reads as one continuous form with the molded shell. Authentic Knoll pieces carry Knoll’s label or marks on the underside. New licensed chairs are sold only by Knoll and its authorized dealers, including Design Within Reach.
Is it legal to sell a copy of the Tulip Chair?
Only partly. Saarinen’s design patent lapsed decades ago, so the form can be manufactured in the United States, but Knoll holds trademark rights in the Saarinen name as applied to furniture, and another maker cannot sell its chair under that name or Knoll’s marks. In the EU and UK, furniture is protected as applied art for the designer’s life plus seventy years.
What size table should I pair with tulip chairs?
Saarinen designed the chairs as part of a Pedestal Group that included a round table. A 42–48 inch round table seats four tulip chairs comfortably. A rectangular table works, but the visual argument the design makes is stronger with a round pedestal table that eliminates legs entirely.
Is the original Knoll Tulip Chair still made?
Yes. Knoll continues to manufacture the Tulip Chair in side chair and armchair versions, with the original cast aluminum base and a molded shell, and lists it from $3,871. The chair is produced under license from the Saarinen estate.
Does the Tulip Chair swivel?
Knoll offers the Tulip Chair with a fixed or a swivel base. Check the configuration when buying new, and ask the seller when buying secondhand.
What the law actually protects
The shorthand — the patents expired, so copies are legal — is half the story. Design patents in the United States run fifteen years from grant (35 U.S.C. §173), so every patent on a 1957 design lapsed generations ago. That is why a factory can lawfully produce the form.
What does not lapse is trademark and trade dress, which can run indefinitely so long as they are used and defended. Knoll has produced the Pedestal Collection continuously since 1957 and holds trademark rights in the Saarinen name as applied to furniture. The shape can be made; the name and the maker’s marks cannot, and a seller who reaches for either is telling you something about the rest of the object.
Outside the United States the ground shifts again: in the EU and the UK, furniture is protected as applied art for the designer’s life plus seventy years, and the UK repealed its twenty-five-year carve-out in 2016. The fuller version of this argument, with the case law, is in our piece on identifying an authentic Barcelona Chair.
If you want this chair
New, from the licence holder. Knoll lists the Tulip Chair from $3,871 and up to $4,161, and it is sold in the United States through Design Within Reach, which is the same company. That price buys the specification described above and a piece that can be serviced and reupholstered rather than replaced.
Secondhand, which is where the actual bargain is. A licensed example from the 1970s or 1980s, refurbished once, is a better object than anything at the copy price and frequently costs less than half of new. Look at 1stDibs, Chairish, regional auction houses and estate sales. Check whether the base is cast aluminium or moulded plastic, and whether the shell and stem read as one continuous form — those are the things an older licensed piece will still show honestly.
If the budget is a few hundred dollars. It does not buy this design in any version, and the honest alternative is a well-made piece that is not imitating one. Something with its own logic will age better in a room than an approximation whose whole argument is that it resembles something famous.
Further Reading
Two books cover Saarinen’s furniture at the depth the design deserves — one focused exclusively on the objects, one placing them in the full career context.
- Brian Lutz, Eero Saarinen: Furniture for Everyman (powerHouse Books, 2012): The only monograph devoted entirely to the furniture, not the buildings. Florence Knoll wrote the preface, and Niels Diffrient (a Saarinen protégé) contributes context from inside the design process. If you want to understand what separates the Knoll original from a lookalike, the archival photography here makes the material differences visible.
- Jayne Merkel, Eero Saarinen (Phaidon, 2005): The standard single-volume survey — the first major Saarinen publication since the early 1960s, according to Merkel. Places the Pedestal Collection in the full arc of the architecture career, which matters for understanding why Saarinen was solving a spatial problem, not just a furniture one.
For the broader survey of postwar seating, see the iconic furniture design hub. For companion chairs from the same mid-century moment, see guides to the Bertoia Diamond Chair and the Noguchi Table.
About Zoe Post
Zoe Post holds a BFA and a Master of Architecture from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She now works as a product marketing leader at an architectural product design firm, bringing hands-on industry perspective to everything she writes. At ADI she covers contemporary artists, textile and pattern design, and the design objects that sit at the boundary of art and function.
