I got an 80 page original furniture price list for (then) currently available Knoll products. For example: Saarinen Grasshopper chair - $150 in fabric Saarinen Grasshopper ottoman - $55.00 in fabric Saarinen Womb chair - $285.00 to $330.00 in fabric Saarinen Womb Settee - $450.00 to $500.00 in fabric Saarinen Womb ottoman - $90.00 to 105.00 in fabric Barcelona chair - $980.00 in leather Barcelona stool $465.00 in leather (23" x 22" x 14 1/2") Barcelona stool $345.00 in leather (23x 22" x 12") Bertoia slat bench $85.00 (66" x 18 1/4" x 15 1/2") $88.00 72" $91.00 82" Amazing. If any of you have a Knoll number and you want to know the 1964 price, ask me.
Inflation is irrelevant
to Knoll's retarded prices.
Barcelona Chair, Stainless:
In 1964: $980
Adjusted for inflation 1964-2009: $6700
Actual price in 2009: $10168 (1.5x inflation)
Womb+Ottoman in least-expensive fabric:
In 1964: $375
Adjusted for inflation 1964-2009: $2550
Actual price in 2009: $5584 (2.2x inflation)
Bertoia Bench, 72":
In 1964: $88
Adjusted for 1964-2009 inflation: $600
Actual price in 2009: $5096 (8.5x inflation!)
ACTUAL price?
Um, fastfwd, you quote "actual prices". I assume you are looking at "list" prices which nobody really pays. A quick look on line will uncover a price of $6,609 for a stainless Barcelona chair. Not cheap to be sure, but a far cry from $10,168.
Why manufacturers print these artifically inflated "list prices" is beyond me but they are never actually sold for that. The current price of 6,600 is actually in line with the 1964 price after being adjusted for inflation.
Yes, I know.
Of course no one pays list, but there's no point comparing apples to oranges...
I assume that Barry's 1964 prices are from Knoll and represent their full list price rather than one of the many levels of discount that they offer, so I compared his prices to Knoll's current full list prices.
If you can find the pricelist for a 1964 equivalent of today's Highbrow Furniture, or tell me whether Knoll's to-the-trade discount was greater or smaller in 1964 than it is now, I'd be happy to compare THOSE apples to apples, too.
I could be wrong
but I don't think there was such a disparity in pricing in 1964. From what I've seen (receipts from folks who bought Knoll, Herman Miller, Dunbar and other furniture back in the day) those prices were actually what the furniture sold for. I don't know when it became industry standard (whether for furniture or cars) to attach an imaginary number (MSRP or list price) to something and then actually sell it for significantly less. Just like I don't know when it became accepted practice to haggle over prices for some items (vintage furniture or antiques, cars, houses, etc.) while not other items (groceries, hardware, appliances, etc) but whatever. I think it's more like comparing granny smith to red delicious apples than apples to oranges.
While I'd agree that current production Knoll is overpriced for what you get when you compare it to the quality of the vintage product, but I don't agree that they are more than doubling the price. It has always been expensive compared to generic furniture that you could buy. An interesting comparison would be the price of an ordinary lounge chair in 1964.
Hard to judge
It's hard to judge what would be a representative "ordinary lounge chair"; I don't know of any that have been in continuous production since 1964, so I can't do the sort of direct comparison that we can do with Knoll prices... But that doesn't really matter, because the rate of inflation is based on the increase in cost of things like ordinary lounge chairs, so by definition the price of those chairs tracks inflation very closely.
$100 in 2009 dollars is worth $14.20 or so in 1964 dollars, so you can just divide today's price for an ordinary lounge chair by 7 to figure out what the equivalent chair would have cost back then.
The only people who got any discounts
from companies like Knoll or Herman Miller back in the 1960's were possibly large whole building or whole floor installations.
If you were in the 'know' and wanted a knoll table or chair for your home back then, you paid the regular price....just like today...and I doubt if they had bi-annual sales.
1969 Knoll Warren Platner Price List
I have an original Knoll Associates price list from 1969 for the still 'fairly new' Warren Platner Lounge Collection (1966)
High back Easy Chair 1705: $620 (Discontinued)
Ottoman 1709: $130 (Discontinued)
Lounge Chair 1715: $415 (Today $6501-$7738)
Stool 1719: $95 (Today $2106-$2946)
Dining/Arm Chair: $295 (Today $3732-$5343)
Side table 16" 3710: $80-$150 (Today $1018-$4255)
Side table 24" 3711: $100-$225 (Discontinued)
Coffee table 36" 3712: $195-$410 (Today $1959-$6422)
Coffee table 42" 3714: $245-$490 (Today $2568-$7820)
Dining Table 54" 3716: $360-$ (Today $4381-$12,584)
There was no upcharge for the bronze metallic finish in those days either like there is today.
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