Herman Miller - Molded Plywood chairs (LCW-LCM-DCW-DCM)

It was selected as "best design of the century" by Time magazine in 1999. 

The chair is in the permanent collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art.

In the early 1940s, when Charles Eames was working on MGM set designs, he would return to the small apartment where he and his wife, Ray, were experimenting with wood-molding techniques that would have profound effects on the design world.  Their discoveries led to a commission from the U.S. Navy in 1942 to develop plywood splints, stretchers, and glider shells molded under heat and pressure.

After World War II, they adapted this technology to create inexpensive, high-quality chairs that could be mass-produced. The process eliminated the extraneous wood needed to connect the seat with the back, which reduced the weight and visual profile of the chair.

Other designers like Swedish designer AlvarAalto, had employed bent and laminated plywood in their modern furniture designs earlier, it was the Eameses process that allowed for sculptural and organic compound curves in their plywood designs.

In 1941 the Museum of Modern Art held a competition organized by Eliot Noyes to discover imaginative designers for contemporary living. Prizes were awarded to Eames and Saarinen for these chairs and storage pieces, by a jury that included Edgar Kaufmann Jr., Alfred H. Barr of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Eliot Noyes, Marcel Breuer, Frank Parrish, and architect Edward Durrell Stone.

The chairs were shown in 1946 in a Museum of Modern Art exhibition, New Furniture Designed by Charles Eames. At the time of the exhibit, the chairs had only three legs, and problems of stability discouraged mass production.

Designs with four wooden legs were first produced in 1946 by Evans Products Company (Eames' wartime employer) and distributed by the Herman Miller Furniture Company.

Later versions with metal legs were produced in 1951, including the LCM (Low Chair-Metal) and DCM (Dining Chair-Metal) models. Matching dining and coffee tables were also produced. The line was produced until 1957, then re-issued in 1994.

Earned the nickname "the potato chip chair" for it's organic looking plywood seat and back.

Sometimes referred to as the "most famous chair of the century,"

Materials:
Molded 5-ply seat and back; 8-ply legs and back brace; rubber shock mounts; self-leveling nylon glides.

Plywood Dining Chair,

DCW (wooden legs)

Dimensions:
H 28.75"  D 21.75 " W 19.5"  Seat H 18"

DCM (metal legs)

 
Plywood Lounge Chair

LCW (wooden legs)

Dimensions:

H 26.5" D 24.5" W 22"

LCM (metal legs)

Dimensions:
H 26.5" W 22" D 24.5" Seat H 15.5"

image credit :silverbelly