Pair of Eames Lounge Chair Metal 'LCM'

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About the Item

Iconic pair of Eames for Herman Miller LCM’s in later orange and black paint finish. These chairs are structurally sound and sturdy, both have a later, but not new, orange paint surface on the wood seats and backs, and the metal frames are in later flat black paint, both have new boot glide feet. While not original, the paint makes these unique and interesting in their own right. Offered and priced as a pair, please view the companion DCM’s we have listed from this stylish suite. Classic Eames for Herman Miller design, from arguably the most influential designers of the era.Creator: Charles and Ray Eames (Designer),Herman Miller (Manufacturer)Design: LCMDimensions: Height: 26 in (66.04 cm)Width: 22 in (55.88 cm)Depth: 20 in (50.8 cm)Seat Height: 15 in (38.1 cm)Sold As: Set of 2Style: Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)Materials and Techniques: Metal,PlywoodPlace of Origin: United StatesPeriod: Mid-20th CenturyDate of Manufacture: 1950sCondition: GoodReplacements made: glide feet are replacements. Additions or alterations made to the original: currently in later paint finish. Wear consistent with age and use. slight cosmetic wear to later paint finish, normal and consistent with age and use.Seller Location: New York, NYReference Number: 1stDibs: LU978721918062Shop 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. The Eameses were lovers of folk craft who had a genius for making highly original chairs, tables, case pieces and other furniture using traditional materials and forms.

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 Eames (190778) studied architecture and industrial design. Ray Eames (ne Beatrice Alexandra Kaiser, 191288) 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 vintage Eames splints 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 Eames chair, 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 original Eames furniture for sale on 1stDibs includes chairs, tables, case pieces and other items.

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Herman Miller

No other business of its kind did more than the Herman Miller Furniture Company to introduce modern design into American homes. Working with legendary designers such as Charles and Ray Eames, George Nelson and Alexander Girard, the Zeeland, Michigan-based firm fostered some of the boldest expressions of what we now call mid-century modern style. In doing so, Herman Miller produced some of the most beautiful, iconic and, one can even say, noblest chairs, sofas, tables and other furniture ever.

Founded in 1923, Herman Miller was originally known for grand historicist bedroom suites: heavily ornamented wood furniture that appealed to a high-minded, wealthier clientele. The company named for its chief financial backer began to suffer in the early 1930s as the Great Depression hit, and D.J. De Pree, the companys CEO, feared bankruptcy. In 1932, aid came in the form of Gilbert Rohde, a self-taught furniture designer who had traveled widely in Europe, absorbing details of the Art Deco movement and other modernist influences. After persuading De Pree that the growing middle class required smaller, lighter household furnishings, Rohde set a new course for Herman Miller, creating sleek chairs, tables and cabinetry that were the essence of the Streamline Moderne style.

Rohde died suddenly in 1944. The following year, De Pree turned to George Nelson, an architect who had written widely about modern furniture design. Under Nelsons leadership, Herman Miller would embrace new technologies and materials and audacious biomorphic forms.

Some of the pieces the company produced are now emblems of 20th century American design, including the Eames lounge chair and ottoman and Nelsons Marshmallow sofa and Coconut chair. Such instantly recognizable furnishings have become timeless staples of a modernist dcor; striking, offbeat notes in traditional environments.

Find a range of vintage Herman Miller office chairs, desks, coffee tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.