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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
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