Maharam Pillow, Small Dot Pattern by Charles & Ray Eames

About the Item

Maharam Pillow Small Dot Pattern by Charles & Ray Eames 006 Document Reverse Small dot pattern offers an alternate scale of Dot Pattern, Ray Eames' 1947 design for the Museum of Modern Art's "Competition for Printed Fabrics". Although visually reminiscent of the era in which it was designed, Small Dot Pattern projects the timelessness of the Eameses' vision. Based on a molecular structure, the motif, and the product name itself, point to the Eameses' simple and direct approach. The Maharam Design Studio worked in close partnership with Lucia Eames to interpret the design into a woven construction while maintaining the hand-executed quality of the original. Charles and Ray Eames placed great importance on materials and Small Dot Pattern is heavily constructed of primarily cotton. Founded in 1902, Maharam offers a comprehensive collection of textiles for commercial and residential interiors. Maharam pillows feature celebrated textile designs from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, from re-editions of the work of Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard and Verner Panton to recent collaborations with Hella Jongerius, Paul Smith, Scholten & Baijings, and Studio Job. Charles and Ray Eames (1907-1978; 1912-1988, United States) were a husband-and-wife design team whose contributions to architecture, furniture, and photography laid the foundation for American mid-century modernism. Charles Eames studied architecture at Washington University (Missouri) and later become head of the department of industrial design at Cranbrook Academy of Art (Michigan). Ray Eames studied at Bennett College (New York) and later studied painting under Hans Hofmann. In 1940, she attended Cranbrook, where she met Charles Eames; they married a year later, in 1941. Their work together began with experimental manipulations of plywood, and, in 1946, they exhibited their furniture at the Museum of Modern Art (New York). Herman Miller began to produce their works in the 1950s. Although the Eameses moved into film, photography, and print, they designed furniture into the 1970s. Their timeless work continues to be influential. 71% cotton, 29% polyester. Cotton insert, duck feather fill. Dry clean only. Note: Due to licensing restrictions, this product cannot be shipped to Europe or the Middle East.

Creator:

Maharam (Manufacturer),Charles and Ray Eames (Designer)

Dimensions:

Height: 17 in (43.18 cm)Width: 17 in (43.18 cm)Depth: 5 in (12.7 cm)

Style:

Modern (In the Style Of)

Materials and Techniques:

Cotton,Polyester

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

21st Century

Date of Manufacture:

2000

Production Type:

New & Custom(Current Production)

Estimated Production Time:

Available Now

Condition:

Seller Location:

New York, NY

Reference Number:

Seller: 800400–0061stDibs: LU308039094943

View Invoice

Shop All Charles and Ray Eames

Charles and Ray Eames

Charles Eames and Ray Eames were the embodiment of the inventiveness, energy and optimism at the heart of mid-century modern American design, and have been recognized as the most influential designers of the 20th century.

As furniture designers, filmmakers, artists, textile and graphic designers and even toy and puzzle makers, the Eameses were a visionary and effective force for the notion that design should be an agent of positive change. They are the happy, ever-curious, ever-adventurous faces of modernism.

Charles (1907–78) studied architecture and industrial design. Ray (née Beatrice Alexandra Kaiser, 1912–88) was an artist, who studied under the Abstract Expressionist painter Hans Hofmann. They met in 1940 at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in suburban Detroit (the legendary institution where Charles also met his frequent collaborator Eero Saarinen and the artist and designer Harry Bertoia) and married the next year.

His technical skills and her artistic flair were wonderfully complementary. They moved to Los Angeles in 1941, where Charles worked on set design for MGM. In the evenings at their apartment, they experimented with molded plywood using a handmade heat-and-pressurization device they called the “Kazam!” machine. The next year, they won a contract from the U.S. Navy for lightweight plywood leg splints for wounded servicemen — they are coveted collectibles today; more so those that Ray used to make sculptures.

The Navy contract allowed Charles to open a professional studio, and the attention-grabbing plywood furniture the firm produced prompted George Nelson, the director of design of the furniture-maker Herman Miller Inc., to enlist Charles and (by association, if not by contract) Ray in 1946. Some of the first Eames items to emerge from Herman Miller are now classics: the LCW, or Lounge Chair Wood, and the DCM, or Dining Chair Metal, supported by tubular steel.

The Eameses eagerly embraced new technology and materials, and one of their peculiar talents was to imbue their supremely modern design with references to folk traditions. Their Wire chair group of the 1950s, for example, was inspired by basket weaving techniques. The populist notion of “good design for all” drove their molded fiberglass chair series that same decade, and also produced the organic-form, ever-delightful La Chaise. In 1956 the Eames lounge chair and ottoman appeared — the supremely comfortable plywood-base-and-leather-upholstery creation that will likely live in homes as long as there are people with good taste and sense.

Charles Eames once said, “The role of the designer is that of a very good, thoughtful host anticipating the needs of his guests.” For very good collectors and thoughtful interior designers, a piece of design by the Eameses, the closer produced to original conception the better, is almost de rigueur — for its beauty and comfort, and not least as a tribute to the creative legacy and enduring influence of Charles and Ray Eames.

The collection of original Eames furniture on 1stDibs includes chairs, tables, case pieces and other items.