Florence Knoll boat table 580 Knoll International USA 1950

Very large sized model 580 boat shaped conference table designed by Florence Knoll and manufactured by Knoll International, USA 1950. It’s the most beautiful version with a black square tubular base and a special made-by-order- mahogany wooden top that wasn’t in the regular catalog. The top has been expertly refinished and looks fantastic. The black metal base is in very good original condition, with gentle patina from age. The top and base consist of 2 separate parts for easy moving/shipping. The chairs on the pictures not included.

Florence Knoll Bassett was an American architect and furniture designer who studied under Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Eliel Saarinen. She was born Florence Schust in Saginaw, Michigan and graduated from the Kingswood School before studying at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Knoll also received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Armour Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1941 and briefly worked with leaders of the Bauhaus movement, including Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, and Wallace K. Harrison.

Florence Knoll was a pioneering designer and entrepreneur who created the modern look and feel of America’s postwar corporate office with sleek furniture, artistic textiles and an uncluttered, free-flowing workplace environment. Influenced by Bauhaus school of design, she promoted the Modernist merger of architecture, art and utility in her furnishings and interiors, especially for offices.

In the 1940s, she married and became a business partner of the German-born furniture maker Hans Knoll, and over 20 years she was instrumental in building Knoll Associates into the largest and most prestigious high-end design firm of its kind, with 35 showrooms in the United States and around the world.Knoll Associates become the leading innovator of modern interiors and furnishings in the 1950s and ’60s, transforming the CBS, Seagram and Look magazine headquarters in Manhattan, the H. J. Heinz headquarters in Pittsburgh and properties across the United States, Europe, Asia and South America, including American embassies.

Literature ; Knoll Furniture 1938-1960 Steven and Linda Rouland 2005 , page 117
Knoll International Brussels catalogue, page

The top is fully refinished with high quality UV-protection lacquer with preservation of authenticity. Also, completely structural checked and ready to use.