Eero Saarinen's Tulip table has "a kind of dishonesty to it"

Next in our mid-century modern series, we examine Eero Saarinen's seminal Tulip table, which embodied the Finnish-American designer and architect's hatred of table legs.

"The undercarriage of chairs and table in a typical interior makes an ugly, confusing, unrestful world," Saarinen remarked. "I wanted to clear up the slum of legs."

The designer achieved his vision in 1957 through the Pedestal Group, more commonly known as the Tulip collection. While a stool and a famous chair were also included, it was the table that arguably became the most influential.

Produced continuously by American furniture brand Knoll since its release and counterfeited countless times, the table is described by Dominic Bradbury in his Mid-Century Modern Design: A Complete Sourcebook as "one of the most recognizable and successful pieces of furniture of the mid-century period".

Cast in enamelled aluminium, the table's sculptural single leg – its pedestal – resembles the stem of a wine glass, flaring as it meets the floor and the underside of the round tabletop.

"There are no angles to break the sweep of the observer's eye along the pedestal," Saarinen wrote in the patent filing for the table.

"These designs have a very restful and pleasing effect on an observer, particularly when used in conjunction with chairs of corresponding design."

Architecture and design curator Donald Albrecht, who has authored a book on Saarinen and is the proud owner of a white marble-topped Tulip table, disagrees with the designer on that point, however.

"I actually think they go better with other pieces of furniture," he told Dezeen. "To me, the table and the chairs are too much. It's just too much curving, too much sculpture."

Albrecht instead matches his Tulip table with Bertoia chairs wrapped in purple fabric.

"Its success is that on the one hand, it's unique, and on the other hand, it plays well with others," Albrecht went on. "And that's why I think it's always been so successful."

Around this point in his career, Saarinen was working primarily as an architect, including on his best-known building project – the TWA Flight Center at New York's Idlewild Airport, later to be renamed John F Kennedy International Airport.

Many design historians have noted that the sculptural curves of the TWA terminal and the David S Ingalls Rink at Yale University, which was also designed by Saarinen and opened in 1958, bear distinct stylistic similarities to the Tulip collection.

Engineering challenge

Embodying the futuristic tendencies of the mid-century modern style, the Tulip table was also a significant moment in the trend for innovation and ambition in furniture design during the period.

Facilitated by advances in material and manufacturing technology, the humble table underwent a revolution during the 1950s and '60s, and more single-legged tables began to emerge in the years after the Tulip.

Despite its aesthetic simplicity, the Tulip table was a relatively involved work of engineering and underwent many rounds of prototyping.

Saarinen faced a major challenge in achieving the "restful and pleasing" effect he wanted using the materials available at the time. It was not easy to make a large table that balanced such visual lightness with sufficient sturdiness.

"The pedestal contours employed in these designs do not lend themselves readily to manufacture by conventional methods," he wrote in the patent filing.

"If made with conventional structures, tables employing these design contours would be top heavy and hence would have a tendency toward instability."

As a result of these difficulties, embedded within the Tulip table is a little-known deceit.

"You could not technically achieve in 1957 what he wanted, which was an all-plastic table," said Albrecht. "The plastic wasn't strong enough."

As a result, look at the underside of the Tulip table and you may spot a roundup piece of white-painted plywood supporting the top.

"The Eameses would have never done that," joked Albrecht. "There's a kind of dishonesty to it. He was more interested in the effect, and he got that."

Albrecht suggests the Tulip designs may have been an influence on Danish designer Verner Panton's famous eponymous chair, which became the first chair manufactured from a single piece of plastic when it went into production in 1967.

Saarinen died during an operation to remove a brain tumour six years before the advent of the Panton chair.

"Had he continued to work he probably would have done all-plastic furniture like Panton," said Albrecht.

Mid-century modern

This article is part of Dezeen's mid-century modern design series, which looks at the enduring presence of mid-century modern design, profiles its most iconic architects and designers, and explores how the style is developing in the 21st century.

This series was created in partnership with Made – a UK furniture retailer that aims to bring aspirational design at affordable prices, with a goal to make every home as original as the people inside it. Elevate the everyday with collections that are made to last, available to shop now at made.com.

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