When Maxwell Pearson enrolled at the University of Michigan’s School of Architecture and Design, he most likely was unfamiliar with Knoll, but inevitably he came to learn about the modern furniture company during his studies, and the global impact it was making in homes and office buildings in the 1950s. He graduated from and pursued further studies at the School for American Craftsmen at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He set his sights on Knoll and joined the company in 1959 working in the Design Development Group alongside Richard Schultz, Don Pettit and others.1
The office seating and residential designs by Saarinen created in the early 1950s continued to sell well, but one chair in particular was the impetus for Max Pearson’s first chair design for Knoll. That was Saarinen No. 76 secretarial chair, the seat and back of which was also used for the No. 77 drafting stool. The design directive given Maxwell was to minimize the visual mass of the seatback support and make the seat adjustment mechanism simpler and easier to adjust, while making the chair more comfortable. The chair also had to have a new base.
Pearson began work evaluating Saarinen’s chairs, taking notes, and sketching ideas, all reviewed by Florence Knoll Bassett. Models were made, and the most promising design then went to full scale prototype. With her discerning eye, she provided her design critique with tact, and it is not too hard to imagine her making the seat adjustments with the new mechanism herself as any secretary might. The Pearson No. 46 secretarial chair was approved for production and Knoll introduced the chair in 1961.2 That year a patent was applied for Pearson’s seat adjustment mechanism.3
Several years later, Pearson began exploring a different means of upholstering office chairs. The new means of upholstering the chairs was the basis for a new collection of chair designs for Knoll. In one of Knoll’s tabloids for the contract trade in 1976, Pearson explained, “I was interested in the problem of upholstering an enclosed shell without using the usual techniques of hand-sewing or double shell construction.”4 Pearson’s design permitted faster machine stitching of the upholstery with minimal hand stitching to finish the chair.
There was a perimeter molded shell with an aperture in the back and bottom of that shell; there was a second molded shell to close out that aperture, and the gap between the two shells was sealed with an upholstered rib that joined the two upholstered shells. That rib gave the different chair configurations a common, distinctive design detail. Pearson and Knoll also received a patent for this chair construction.5
The Pearson Chairs brochure announced their introduction by Knoll in 1966. These included a side chair, a small armchair and large armchair. The new seat tilt and swivel mechanism designed by Robert Helms was employed across all Knoll office seating in 1966 as well. The Pearson chairs remained in production through 1987.6
1. “Knoll Designer Bios – Max Pearson.” https://www.knoll.com/designer/Max-Pearson.
2. “1961 Product – The Model 46 Chair.” https://www.knoll.com/the-archive/.
3. Pearson, Maxwell E. Chair Adjustment Mechanism. US Patent 3,111,343 filed May 12, 1961, and issued Nov. 19, 1963.
4. Christine Rae, “Max Pearson,” Knoll tabloid (1976): 4.
5. Pearson, Maxwell E. Furniture Construction. US Patent 3,521,929 filed November 9, 1967, and issued July 28, 1970.
6. “1966 Product – The Pearson Seating Collection.” https://www.knoll.com/the-archive/.