For Knoll International, the purchase of the Gavina SpA. in 1968 was a profound acquisition that added an impressive roster of architects and designers to the Knoll catalog. One of them was Cini Boeri. She graduated from the Politecnico di Milano with a degree in architecture in 1951. For the next twelve years she worked for the Milanese architect and industrial designer Marco Zanuso, after which she opened her own practice in Milan.
Her first mass-produced furniture design was Bobo Relax designed in 1967 and manufactured by Arflex of Milan. This was a lounge chair molded of polyurethane foam on a plywood base and fully upholstered.1 She followed this with a group of visually striking tables for Gavina with tempered glass tops supported by an offset, pointed elliptical polished chrome base having a substantial steel weight in the bottom. This table series continued to be manufactured by Gavina after the purchase by Knoll, and the Lunario Tables entered the Knoll catalog in 1972.2 They were available in three different heights with either a 59-inch by 44-inch elliptical or 59-inch diameter glass top but could also be ordered with white or black matte finish laminate tops.3
The first furniture Boeri designed for Knoll was a modular seating group she named Gradual Lounge.4 She wanted flexibility in configuration and expandability in the number of units. In discussions with Knoll Design Development, impact-resistant polystyrene molded plastic was selected for the settee and sofa seating frames , two-section end table and three-section end table. The seating frames were fitted with ball casters. The two-section end table could be adjusted from 60 to 90 degrees and the three-section end table could be adjusted from 120 to 180 degrees. The back of these units had open shelf storage. The colors available included black, white, dark brown or red. The removable seat and back cushions were upholstered in leather.5
Production of the Gradual Lounge ended around 19786 and the Lunario tables remained in the Knoll catalog and price list through 19817 but were not listed in the 1984 catalog functional index; the tables were discontinued between 1982 and 1983. Boeri would design a new lounge seating group, Brigadier Lounge Seating, for Knoll in 1977 for sale in Europe, but it did not enter the North American Knoll catalog until 1988.8
1. Jerryll Habegger and Joseph H. Osman. Sourcebook of Modern Furniture. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2005). 430.
2. Eric Larrabee & Massimo Vignelli. Knoll Design. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Publishers, 1990), 188.
3. Knoll International Furniture Price List 1973. 71-72.
4. “Remembering Cini Boeri.” https://www.knoll.com/knollnewsdetail/remembering-cini-boeri.
5. Knoll International Furniture Price List 1973. 7-8.
6. Knoll International Furniture Price List Contract/Residential 5/79; Gradual Lounge was not listed.
7. Knoll International Residential Price List 2/81.
8. “The Boeri Collection – Brigadier Lounge Seating.” KnollStudio Price List 1988. 66-69