Eames ottoman
Charles Eames (St Louis 1907 - St Louis 1978) and Ray Eames (Sacramento 1916 - Los Angeles 1988)
Category
Furniture
Date
1956 - 1970
Materials
Rosewood plywood, Beech plywood, leather, steel, aluminium, paint, plastic
Measurements
41 x 66 x 54 mm
Place of origin
Newchapel
Order this imageCollection
The Homewood, Surrey
NT 864325.2
Caption
Ray Eames is best known for the groundbreaking furniture designs she created in collaboration with her husband, Charles Eames (1907–78). Together, they also worked across interior design, graphics, exhibition design, filmmaking and architecture – most notably the creation of The Eames House, their steel-framed home in Los Angeles. Eames was born in Sacramento and moved to New York to study with Hans Hofmann (1880–1966), an influential avantgarde painter and teacher. She became a founder member of the American Abstract Artists group, which fought for the recognition of non-representational art, and she went on to study at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. It was here that she met Charles, whom she married in 1941. Ray and Charles moved to Los Angeles and their remarkable creative partnership began. The understanding of structure and colour that Ray had developed through her training as a painter was a consistently important influence on their work. The celebrated Eames Office, led by Ray and Charles, focused on the creation of high-quality, practical and affordable mass-produced furniture using modern materials and techniques. After the Second World War they focused, with great commercial and critical success, on the production of chairs in moulded plywood – a material that was strong but pliant – manufactured to their design by the Herman Miller Furniture Company in Michigan. A few years later they developed seating with moulded, coloured shells in plastic – a relatively new material for furniture. The Lounge Chair (model 670), formed from three linked plywood shells veneered with rich rosewood and upholstered in leather, was in development for two years and marked a departure from affordability into luxury. Launched in 1956 with a matching Ottoman (model 671), it was advertised as ‘luxuriously comfortable, completely relaxing, supremely handsome’. Today it is considered an icon of mid-century modern design.
Summary
An Eames ottoman, American, designed by Charles and Ray Eames, circa 1953-55, manufactured by Herman Miller, circa 1956-1970, with a moulded santos rosewood frame formed of a curved panel containing a buttoned black leather padded seat, on a swiveling black-painted steel column with four arm aluminium base, the sides of the arms painted black, each arm terminating of a foot made up of a black plastic disc impressed 'DOMES OF SILENCE ~ INSULATED' and a steel disc, the interior curve of the ottoman seat appears to be beech ply. A black label applied to the underside of the seat reading 'herman miller'. Together with a lounge chair (NT 864325.1) with moulded santos rosewood frame forming a curved panel for the headrest, a lower curved panel for the back and curved seat, each panel upholstered the front with buttoned black leather, with padded over curved armrests, the seat supported on a swiveling column with a five arm base. Re-upholstered, circa 2001-03 and re-lined in 2007. The first Eames lounge chair and ottoman was designed by husband and wife Charles and Ray Eames as a gift for the director Billy Wilder. The chair was featured in 1956 on the Home show hosted by Arlene Francis and very quickly became an American design classic.
Provenance
The Eames lounge chair and ottoman belonged to the actor Laurence Harvey. It was given to Patrick Gwynne in the 1970s by Harvey's widow, Paulene Stone. The Homewood and some of its contents were given to the National Trust by Patrick Gwynne in 1999.
Marks and inscriptions
Underside of seat: Black label reading 'herman miller'
Makers and roles
Charles Eames (St Louis 1907 - St Louis 1978) and Ray Eames (Sacramento 1916 - Los Angeles 1988), designer Charles Eames (St Louis 1907 - St Louis 1978), designer Ray Eames (Sacramento 1916 - Los Angeles 1988), designer Herman Miller , manufacturer Pamela Langbridge, upholsterer