Herman Miller, ICF - Charles Eames - Armchair (2) - Lounge Chair - Aluminium, Leather, Rosewood

“Why don't we make an updated version of the old English armchair? ” With this phrase Charles Eames gave life to the production process of the Eames Lounge chair which required several years of testing before arriving at the desired result. The ambitious goal was to create a chair with large proportions that combined maximum comfort with high-quality handcrafted materials. The project respected all these intentions of the two designers, creating a true classic of modern furniture that has become the icon of swivel armchairs.
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The Lounge Chair presented in this auction is a piece produced by ICF under license from Herman Miller in the late 1970s.
This Lounge Chair comes in the classic version with a Santos Rosewood veneered plywood shell and cushions covered in splendid black leather.
The armchair is in excellent used condition. It has been restored with great skill and is now in its best condition, ready to be used for the next fifty years.
Structure and shell are solid and sturdy with the wooden part professionally polished and the metal parts also thoroughly cleaned and polished.
The impeccable quality leather upholstery is impeccable, with virtually no signs of use and the padding is still perfectly solid.
An exceptional piece in terms of quality and integrity.
There is a Herman Miller ICF label under the body of the armchair.
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Dimensions cm: Armchair 82 high, 87 long, 78 wide.
Footrest 41 high, 65 wide, 55 long
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Our company ORVETT offers free transport insurance for deliveries.
For "rest of the world" shipping the cost is indicative. We will formulate a quote once the auction is over according to the destination.
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Their most famous armchair, the Eames Lounge Chair, is exhibited in over twenty museums in Europe and the United States.
Charles Eames, born in Saint Louis in 1907 and raised by studying and doing various jobs to help his family of origin, at the end of the 1930s, after having also opened a studio, obtained a teaching contract at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, in Michigan. And it is precisely there that he meets Bernice Alexandra Kaiser, known to everyone simply as Ray. The young woman, born in Sacramento in 1912, studied there.
A personal and professional feeling is born between the two. They discover they are similar but also just different enough to make them complementary. He is an architect and designer focused more on materials and technology, she is a painter interested in design more sensitive to aesthetics and ergonomics, together they give life to a truly particular style.
After getting married in 1941, they moved to California and there they began to experiment with wood and to think about an innovative use of industrial techniques and materials, first and foremost printable plastics. From their work, made up of design and architecture, creativity and science, furnishings are born that have become milestones of design. Modern, functional, sophisticated and at the same time extremely simple pieces. “The role of the designer is comparable to that of a kind and attentive host who knows how to foresee the needs of his guests,” Charles repeated. And it is with this attitude that their furniture was born, today produced and distributed by Herman Miller ICF and Vitra.
Strengthened by their great sense of adventure and their infinite curiosity, however, Charles and Ray Eames did not only design furniture. They also designed their home in Los Angeles, an emblem of post-war American architecture and a destination for architects and designers from all over the world, organized exhibitions and exhibitions and also produced over 100 films and short films. All always putting their union first - interrupted only by the death of Charles Eames in 1978 - and a healthy, abundant dose of lightness. “Take your fun seriously! ” they always said. And so they did.
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ICF De Padova
During the 1950s Fernando and Maddalena De Padova began their entrepreneurial activity by importing Scandinavian furniture and objects sold in the showroom in via Montenapoleone in Milan. For the first time, Northern European design arrives in Italy.
During a trip to Basel, Maddalena De Padova accidentally discovers the Wire Chair by Charles Eames. Within a few months, Maddalena met the American company Herman Miller from which she obtained the production license for Italy of the products designed by Charles Eames and George Nelson. ICF De Padova is founded, with headquarters in Vimodrone, which will produce Herman Miller office furniture in Italy. From this meeting Maddalena De Padova absorbs the secrets that will constitute the heart of her philosophy: the importance of the environmental context from George Nelson, the "connections" from Charles Eames, the role of objects from Alexander Girard. The large showroom in Corso Venezia in Milan is inaugurated
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Herman Miller, Inc. based in Zeeland (Michigan) , is an American office furniture and furnishings company. Some products that have entered the history of industrial design are the Equa chair, the Aeron chair, the Noguchi table, the Marshmallow sofa, and the Eames Lounge Chair. Herman Miller is the inventor of the cubicle (known as "Action Office II") in 1968 designed by Robert Propst.
Herman Miller in Europe is present in every state with a dense network of distributors but we find its direct presence with a dedicated showroom in Milan, Paris and London.
Herman Miller was founded in 1905 as Star Furniture Co. in Zeeland. It originally produced classic-style bedroom furniture. In 1909, Dirk Jan De Pree began working as a clerk and became president in 1919, when the company changed its name to Michigan Star Furniture Co. De Pree and his adoptive father, Herman Miller, bought 51% of the company in 1923 naming it Herman Miller Furniture Company,[3] which later became Herman Miller, Inc. in 1960.
Until the 1930s, the company produced classic wood furniture, but with the advent of the Great Depression the company explored new markets. The hiring of Gilbert Rohde, a designer specializing in modernism,[2] [3] was a turning point and in 1933 Herman Miller debuted at the Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago. In 1941 showrooms opened at Merchandise Mart in Chicago and New York. Under Rohde's leadership, Herman Miller entered the office furniture market in 1942, with the "Modular Executive Office" Group (EOG) series.
Rohde died in 1944 and was replaced by George Nelson in 1945. For over four decades Nelson influenced Herman Miller, including colleagues who worked with him such as Isamu Noguchi, Charles Eames and Ray Eames, Robert Propst, Alexander Girard. From the late 1940s Nelson and colleagues designed products such as the Noguchi table, the Eames Lounge Chair, the Marshmallow sofa, the Ball clock (now of the Howard Miller Clock Company) and the Sling sofa.
Dirk Jan De Pree continued to collaborate with the company as CEO until 1961, when he was replaced by his sons Hugh De Pree first and then Max De Pree.
Stephen Frykholm also collaborated with the Miller company: from 1970 to 1989 Frykholm produced a series of advertising posters, permanently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art.
In April 2021 the company bought competitor Knoll for $1. 8 billion.
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