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Diamond Chair designed by Harry Bertoia. Welded steel with rods in polished or satin chrome, or bonded rilsan, a very durable adhesive-fused nylon-dipped finish. Scratch, chip, and chemical resistant. All wire seating includes glides. Cushions are secured to chair with lock-snaps. Full covers are stretched over the wire seat basket and attach to seat basket with hooks.

In Bertoia's own words, "If you look at these chairs, they are mainly made of air, like sculpture. Space passes right through them."

Notes

'Diamond chair' a fluid, sculptural form made from a molded lattice work of welded steel.

In Bertoia's own words, "If you look at these chairs, they are mainly made of air, like sculpture. Space passes right through them."

They were produced with varying degrees of upholstery over their light grid-work, and they were handmade because a suitable mass production process could not be found. Unfortunately, the chair resembled an Eames chair so closely that Herman Miller, Eames' distributor, took Knoll to court on the grounds that they were taking wrongful credit for a bent-wire technique owned by the Eames. Herman Miller eventually won and gave Knoll a license to produce the chairs, but knowing that the Eames and Bertoia worked closely for so long, the "genealogy" of inspiration seems difficult and maybe even unnecessary to pin down.

Nonetheless, the commercial success enjoyed by Bertoia's diamond chair was immediate and in the mid-50's the chairs, being produced by Knoll, sold so well, that the royalties he received for them allowed him to devote himself exclusively to sculpture.