Guéridon Platner

In the mid-1960s, Warren Platner developed a collection for Knoll International consisting of various tables, the Platner armchair, a chair and a stool, aollection which became an immediate success and also icons of their time. Like the other pieces in the collection the frame of the Warren Platner side table is made of bent, nickel-plated steel wire struts, which simultaneously serve as the basic structure of the furniture and as an ornament thanks to their moiré effect. This pedestal, which is available in two sizes, is complemented by a table top crafted from either marble or crystal glass. The elaborate, then novel and complicated production of steel wire, was and is the reason for the fascination of the Warren Platner table. Warren Platner, who worked with the legendary architects Raymond Loewy and Eero Saarinen, can be seen as a key figure in the second generation of wire-frame and column-based chairs: instead of emphasizing the technological and craft components as in the early days of modernism and seeking innovation in furniture by revealing its design, Warren Plattner strove for decorative, graceful, less strict forms. Warren Platner's collection for Knoll thus reflects the cultural and social change in the 1960s, which corresponded to a greater expressiveness in the formal language of modern design. In combination with the high-quality materials of the table top, the Knoll Platner side table is an exclusive piece of designer furniture and is as fascinating today as it was then.