italian design contract - Saarinen table en chairs  

Both those sites sell knockoffs and the general consensus here is that knockoffs are way less desirable than the real thing. You can probably get a nice vintage set for an affordable price with some diligent and patient hunting.

I explored all the replica options for a year or two, while looking out for a reasonably priced used set (oval marble table and 8 tulip chairs) in the mean time.

I've seen a couple of replicas in person and all of them deviated from the original design (wrong oval shape, wrong knife edge angle, wrong top thickness, wrong base curvature etc. )

I had high hopes for Steelform/Steeldomus because they were more expensive, claiming to be made in Italy, 100% true to the original specifications and allround being the best replica available on the market.

I asked them if their base was 100% identical to the Knoll version.

They said yes and it also seemed to be the case when I saw the pictures on their website.

I e-mailed the contact person again and explicitly asked to make pictures of their tulip base in their factory.

This is what I received: Image 1) left is their picture, right is a Knoll version

From another angle: Image 2) Top picture is a Knoll and bottom picture is their version.

I had seen this kind of base before in person and took a picture myself in the store. (Image 3)

For us this was completely unacceptable, the design concept calls for a base edge to end flat and 'become one with the floor' and the vertical rim completely destroys that original idea.

Other replica bases don't have such an explicit vertical edge/rim but a more rounded one. Still very far from the flat ending original.

Image 4: replica rounded edge

Image 5: Knoll flat ending

Image 6: Knoll flat ending

You'll have to decide yourself how important these details are for you.

The forum resizes the images, so it might not be entirely clear.

I've uploaded the large versions of the pictures here:

https://postimg.org/gallery/hdjg2rgc/

Hello jann,

thank you in advance for the information and pictures.

I had not yet noticed these differences.

After all, what did you do?

Still strange that it is so difficult to recreate the table perfectly, especially the thickness of the foot.

Greetings,

Karine

After 4 years of looking and driving around and sending emails to online sellers for specific photo's, we never found a copy that we would be happy with and dismissed the idea of buying a cheap(er) copy.

For a short while we explored the option to buy an original Knoll base and have our local stonecutter make a marble top to the correct specs. But finding a used Knoll base was next to impossible and a new one costed several thousands and the marble top wasn't cheap either.

In the end we decided to look out for a reasonably priced vintage/used Knoll dining set which we recently found (an oval Arabescato marble table and 8 tulip chairs)

By the way, it occurred to me that a lot of the copies look like the Pastoe version instead of the Knoll version. Especially with regard to how the base edge ends (flat ending vs round or vertical rim)

Here's a good example of the Pastoe version bases:

https://www.pamono.com/tulip-dining-set-by-eero-saarinen-for-pastoe-1960s

Matrix International otherwise is very close to the original.