Set of Four McGuire Laced Rawhide Rattan Dining Armchairs

About the Item

Genuine set of four rare McGuire Antalya directors style dining armchairs featuring lattice style laced rawhide woven leather seats and back. Model #MCLM45 is crafted with rattan poles lashed together with leather rawhide laces on the exposed joints and arm ends. The generous seat is supported by straight legs conjoined by x form stretchers in a directors chair style. Made in the California organic modern style with McGuire makers plaque on bottoms. Iconic McGuire design that is still in production today. Excellent joinery and craftsmanship with a lovely faded vintage patina on the rawhide. From an estate in Napa Valley, CA.

Creator:
McGuire (Maker)
Dimensions:
Height: 34 in (86.36 cm)Width: 23 in (58.42 cm)Depth: 24 in (60.96 cm)Seat Height: 17 in (43.18 cm)
Sold As:
Set of 4
Style:
Organic Modern (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Bamboo,Leather,Rattan,Hand-Crafted
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
Late 20th Century
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Beautifully crafted with strong joinery and age appropriate wear and fading as seen in photos. Rawhide has a vintage patina with minor repairs as expected.
Seller Location:
Rio Vista, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU1555229136312

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McGuire

Like so many artists and designers, husband and wife John McGuire (1920–2013) and Elinor Stevenson (1914–2005) became masters in their trade by accident. For the founders of McGuire Furniture Company, well, furniture wasn’t actually in the plans.

The couple met just before the start of World War II (during which John was in the U.S. Navy and Elinor was a navigation instructor) and got married after it ended. They settled down in San Francisco where John held a couple of jobs — among them selling newspaper ads for the San Francisco Examiner while Elinor worked for Boeing Aircraft. Soon, an old Navy buddy of John’s asked him to help sell a bunch of rattan furniture and, needing the money, John agreed. His side business became so successful that John decided to quit his ad-sales job and work full-time in design.

In 1948, McGuire Furniture Company was born. Alongside the mid-century modern furniture designs then gaining popularity in the United States, John introduced an unconventional idea: traditional armchairs, stools and tables made of natural materials such as bamboo, which was strong yet could be rendered pliable when steamed, that were intended for the indoors rather than the front porch.

The brand’s first success was the now famous Director’s X-Chair by Leonard Linden. The military-campaign-style solid oak folding chair launched in 1956 and saw rattan binded with rawhide strips and a high-grade leather slug seat and back that eliminated the need for a plush cushion. Elinor, too, designed some of the brand’s popular pieces, such as 1968’s Cracked Ice chair. With its rattan oval back a dazzling celebration of geometric forms that give it its charming moniker, the Cracked Ice chair was an instant classic and is one of the brand’s most recognizable designs.

Today, McGuire and another American furniture manufacturer, Baker Furniture Company, comprise Baker Interiors Group. McGuire remains true to the founders’ ideals and commitment to crafting the kind of organic modern furnishings that are synonymous with the warm and relaxed feel of California design. The company has collaborated with interior designers Steven Volpe, Orlando Diaz-Azcuy and Nicole Hollis, and, as of 2019, its luxury furnishings share a 16,500-square-foot showroom with Baker’s in San Francisco. Some of the earliest McGuire Furniture Company designs are part of the permanent collection at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City.

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