Cini Boeri Brigadier Lounge

In the mid-1970s, Cini Boeri followed up her Gradual lounge seating group with a new lounge seating collection she called Brigadier. Author Eric Larrabee writes she designed this furniture group for Knoll in 1976.¹Subsequent Knoll literature states Brigadier was designed in 1977. The Brigadier Lounge Seating Collection was awarded the Design Center Stuttgart Award in West Germany in 1978.²

In the Knoll 1988 brochure for the Boeri Collection Brigadier Lounge Seating, it stated the seating group was designed in 1977. Courtesy Knoll, Inc.

The Boeri Brigadier Lounge Collection included the low back No. 55L1 lounge chair, No. 55L2 settee, No. 55L3 sofa, and high back No. 55SH1 lounge chair, No. 55SH2 settee and No. 55SH3 sofa. The collection was manufactured in Europe, most likely Italy, and sold throughout Europe and exported to other countries. Brigadier was not listed in the Knoll catalog and sold in the United States until 1988.³The Boeri Brigadier Lounge Collection remained in the Knoll North American catalog for five years and was discontinued sometime thereafter.⁴

The Brigadier No. 55SH1 high back lounge chair and No. 55SH3 high back sofa, with Boeri Lunario table. Courtesy Knoll, Inc.

1. Eric Larrabee & Massimo Vignelli. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989). 189.
2. KnollStudio Price List 1988. 66.
3. Ibid. 66-69, identified as a New item in the Price List. Also: The Boeri Collection Brigadier Loung Seating, KnollStudio ©1988.
4. KnollStudio Price List 1992-93. 82-85. The Brigadier Collection was not listed in the 1996 Price List.