This coffee table is one of those iconic mid-century modern designs so sought after! The Platner coffee table was designed by Warren Platner for Knoll in 1966 along with a series of furniture made with steel rods and negative space. The original finishes were nickel chrome, which is what this one is, and bronze. For the 50th anniversary of the series in 2016 they also began making them in 18K gold plating! This table has been in production continuously since its introduction; therefore, there is not an easy way to tell when this particular table was produced. However, we can see it is not brand new so must have been made circa mid-late 20th century.
Warren Platner (1919-2006), born Joseph Warren Platner in Baltimore, Maryland was a famed American architect and interior designer. He attained his architectural degree in 1941 from Cornell University and almost immediately began working with some of the most prominent architecture practices in the country such as Raymond Loewy and I.M. Pei. He was also a part of Eero Saarinen’s office as well as Kevin Roche in the early and mid-1960s. During that time, he designed his iconic and sculptural collection of chairs, ottomans, and tables from nickel plated steel rods and empty space. Which, according to the Knoll catalog, resembled a “shiny sheaf of wheat”. Platner’s designs were at once classic and modern. He was known to say that there was room in modernism “for the kind of decorative, gentle, graceful design that appeared in a period style like Louis XV”. And, that the definition of a “classic” as being, something that every time you look at it, you accept it as it is, and you see no way of improving it. He was an award-winning designer in both furniture and his interior design projects and inducted into Interior Design magazine’s hall of fame in 1985. He was still active in his firm until falling ill prior to his death. His designs will live on.
This table is a classic and will blend and look gorgeous with almost any interior design approach. You must make it yours!
