Early 1960s Eames Aluminum Group Lounge Chair and Ottoman
View Similar Items
Early 1960s Eames Aluminum Group Lounge Chair and Ottoman
About the Item
- Creator:Charles and Ray Eames (Designer),Herman Miller (Maker)
- Design:
- Dimensions:Height: 39 in (99.06 cm)Width: 25.5 in (64.77 cm)Depth: 27 in (68.58 cm)Seat Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)
- Style:Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
- Materials and Techniques:
- Place of Origin:
- Period:
- Date of Manufacture:Early 1960s
- Condition:Wear consistent with age and use. This early edition has lots of years left in it, shows age and looks great. Please see all images.
- Seller Location:Miami, FL
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU830121038792
Eames Executive Chair
American chess grand master Bobby Fischer pronounced the Eames Executive chair to be so comfortable that he insisted it was the only chair he could concentrate on during his world championship match against Boris Spassky in Iceland in 1972. In the end, both Spassky and Fischer were seated on the lightweight aluminum and leather chairs that have been seen in offices around the world since the piece's debut in 1960.
Modern American design luminaries Charles and Ray Eames (1907–78; 1912–88) initially came up with the concept for the Executive chair at the request of Time Inc. founder Henry Luce for the lobbies of the Time & Life Building in Manhattan. Luce had asked the Eameses to design several of the property’s lobbies as a return favor for their use of the Time/Life photo library, to which they had been granted access for their film Glimpses of the U.S.A., first shown at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959.
Conceived to be smaller than the now-famous Eames lounge chair, the Executive chair was versatile enough to be used as a conference-room chair while still extremely comfortable. Since then, the Eames Executive chair, which features three individual upholstered cushions, has become so synonymous with chic mid-century modernism that examples of it were used around the conference table on the set of the TV series Mad Men.
Charles and Ray Eames first met at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where Ray was taking classes after studying painting with Hans Hofmann in New York. Charles had already established his own architecture practice in St. Louis, when he received a fellowship to Cranbrook and later headed its industrial design department.
After marrying in 1941, the newlyweds moved to Los Angeles, where they established the Eames Office and eventually built their lifelong residence, the Eames House in Pacific Palisades as part of the Case Study House Program.
Perhaps best known for their visionary work with molded plywood, the Eameses’ furniture designs, toys, graphic and textile designs, films and architecture truly transformed American interior design and furniture like almost no other designer of the 20th century. Many museums throughout the United States, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, hold examples of the Eames Executive chair in their permanent collections.
Herman Miller, the core business of which was office furnishings by the 1960s, continues to produce the Eames Executive chair. In Europe, the alluring leather swivel chair is manufactured by Vitra as the Eames Lobby chair.
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.
- Italian Modern Ceramic Wall Plaque "Fisherman and His Catch" 1960sLocated in Miami, FLREDUCED FROM $300....Modernist depiction of a Fisherman and His Catch on this 1960s colorful Italian Ceramic Wall plaque. A combination of...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Decorative Art
MaterialsClay
$216 Sale Price28% Off - Mid Century Modern Klinker Pottery West German Vase 1960sBy Ceramano, Scheurich & CarstensLocated in Miami, FLLarge Klinker German Mid Century Modern Pottery Vase 1960s. The body of the vase is painted with a dark chocolate brown glaze and incised into the clay are bands that uncover the re...Category
Vintage 1960s German Mid-Century Modern Vases
MaterialsCeramic, Pottery
- Large Modern Freeform Blown Murano Glass Vessel, Italy, 1960sBy SegusoLocated in Miami, FLREDUCED FROM $385....Large Mid Century Modern freeform blown murano glass vessel, Italy, 1960s. Probably Seguso, it is an explosive form of glass wings pulled from the center with th...Category
Vintage 1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Garniture
MaterialsBlown Glass
$200 Sale Price48% Off - Scheurich Ceramic Mid-Century Modern Floor Vase, Germany, 1960sBy Ceramano, Scheurich & CarstensLocated in Miami, FLLarge and impressive 1960s Mid-Century Modern German lava glaze pottery floor vase from Scheurich pottery. Fat and appealing shape, at once masculine and strong. Designed with an ora...Category
Vintage 1960s German Mid-Century Modern Vases
MaterialsCeramic, Pottery
- German Midcentury U Keramik Modern Ceramic Vase, Germany, circa 1960sBy Ü KeramikLocated in Miami, FLA number of colored rectangles on perpendicular incised white lines over a black glossy glaze background defines this Mid-Century Modern vase from Üebelacker-Keramik also known as ...Category
Vintage 1960s German Mid-Century Modern Vases
MaterialsCeramic, Pottery
- ZBS, Modern Bohemian Citrine Yellow Blown Glass Vase, Czechoslovakia, 1960sBy Bohemia Crystal, BohemiaLocated in Miami, FLBeautiful citrine yellow glass vase attributed to Miloslav Klinger for Zelesnobrodské Sklo back when the Czech Republic was still part of Czechoslovakia, circa 1960. Elegant draped t...Category
Vintage 1960s Czech Mid-Century Modern Vases
MaterialsBlown Glass
$132 Sale Price28% Off
- Vintage Herman Miller Eames Lounge Chair and OttomanBy Charles and Ray Eames, Herman MillerLocated in San Pedro Garza Garcia, Nuevo LeonClassic rosewood and black leather lounge chair and ottoman, 670 & 671 designed by Charles and Ray Eames by Herman Miller, circa 1969, original ...Category
20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsAluminum
- Aluminum Group Lounge Chair & Ottoman by Charles and Ray EamesBy Charles and Ray Eames, Herman MillerLocated in Sagaponack, NYA black leather lounge chair with ottoman each on matching anodized polished aluminum frames. Ottoman is 18" H x 21" W x 21" D.Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsSteel, Aluminum
- 1960s Herman Miller Eames Aluminum Group Lounge ChairBy Charles and Ray EamesLocated in Las Vegas, NVThis is an original Iconic Eames Aluminum Group Lounge Chair designed by Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller in 1958. It was produced...Category
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal, Aluminum
- Charles Eames Aluminum Group Lounge Chair and Ottoman for Herman MillerBy Herman Miller, Charles and Ray EamesLocated in Dallas, TXCharles and Ray Eames 'Aluminum Group' lounge chair model EA124 and ottoman model EA125. This is an early production one-owner example that has been very well ...Category
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsAluminum
- Charles and Ray Eames Midcentury Cherry Lounge Chair and OttomanBy Charles and Ray EamesLocated in Countryside, ILCharles and Ray Eames midcentury Cherry lounge chair and ottoman The chair measures: 32 wide x 34 deep x 32 high, with a seat height of 15 inches ...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsUpholstery, Cherry
- Eames Aluminum Group Chair and OttomanBy Charles and Ray EamesLocated in Countryside, ILEames Aluminum Group Chair and Ottoman The chair measures: 25.75 wide x 31 deep x 39.5 high, with a seat height of 14.5 inches and arm height/chair clearance of 20.5 inches The otto...Category
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
MaterialsMetal, Aluminum
$3,295 / set
Recently Viewed
View AllRead More
A Guide to Herman Miller’s Most Iconic Furniture
The prolific manufacturer has partnered with many of the world’s top designers since opening its doors in 1923. Here are some of the company’s greatest hits, which helped transform the American home and office.
The 21 Most Popular Mid-Century Modern Chairs
You know the designs, now get the stories about how they came to be.