I am buying a supposedly 20/30 yr old diamond chair from an older couple. They claim that it is authentic, but I can find no identification marks on the wire frame which has some chrome rust and damage. They do have a small seat pad with a Knoll paper tag on it.
But as you know, the seat pad is easily detachable and attachable to the wire frame, so this doesn't mean anything. Is there any other way I can ID this as an original vintage Bertoia diamond?
thanks!!! Responses from knowledgeable people will be much appreciated.
Two things
1) most (but not all) contemporary knock-offs have a double wire rim. Real Knoll has a single wire rim.
2) most (but not all) contemporary knock-offs have a base where the rods do not overlap. The rods overlap on real Knoll chairs.
The first photo is the real thing.
The 2nd and 3rd photos is a knock-off.
Knoll
Has pretty detailed photos of the contemporary production on their website. However, there have been slight modifications to the design / materials over the years.
Since the wire chairs were not reproduced until "recently", if you believe the provenance of the chair in question, there is no reason to think that it is a knock-off.
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