Charles, 1907 – 1978 / Ray, 1912-1988 The prolific body of work of Charles and Ray Eames, which spanned from 1941 to 1978, extended well beyond their major achievements in furniture design, graphic design, architecture and film. Their influence on the aesthetic and social aspects of design made them two of the greatest industrial designers of our time. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Charles Eames grew up in America’s industrial heartland. As a young man he worked for engineers and manufacturers, anticipating his lifelong interest in mechanics and the complex working of things. Ray Kaiser, born in Sacramento, California, spent her formative years in New York’s modern art movements and participated in the first wave of American-born abstract artists. They met at the Cranbrook Academy of Art near Detroit in 1940. Cranbrook’s creed of better living through better design shaped their sensibilities and their shared agenda. They married in 1941 and moved to Los Angeles as the city was gearing up for World War II.
Wartime experiments with new materials and technologies inspired the Eames’ low-cost furniture for Herman Miller and expanded ways for designers to work with industry. In LA, they conducted plywood experiments in their apartment. The US Navy order enabled the Eames to rent an office on Santa Monica Boulevard in 1942 and to gather a group of collaborators including Harry Bertoia. They produced sculpture, chairs, screens, and tables in plywood. Herman Miller, the US furniture group, was persuaded to put some of these pieces into production by George Nelson, its head of design. All the Eames’ plywood furniture combined an elegant organic aesthetic with a love of materials and technical ingenuity. After the success of the plywood pieces, the Eames focused on other materials, creating furniture in fiberglass, plastic, aluminum and, for the 1956 lounge chair, leather and rosewood. The Lounge Chair became an icon of the 1960s and 1970s, becoming a must-have for all hip executives. Their collaboration with Herman Miller continued and extended to Vitra, its European partner.
Charles and Ray were equally influential at making respectable the then-neglected folk crafts not only in the US but also in India. These concerns dominated their later work in the 1970s when, able to live comfortably on their Herman Miller and Vitra royalties, they concentrated their creative energy on propagating their ideas in exhibitions, books and films. Charles died in 1978 and Ray worked hard to complete any unfinished projects but having done so, did not seek new ones. She devoted the rest of her life to communicating their ideas through talks and writing. Ray Eames died in 1988, ten years to the day after Charles.View More by: Charles & Ray EamesExperience the New Aeron Because work has changed, we made our best chair work even better. Made for the person, the landscape, and the world Herman Miller Online Store It’s easy to fall in love with Eames Shell ChairsWhen a 1949 Chieftain armchair by Danish designer Finn Juhl sold last fall for $780,000 at auction, mid-century furniture dealers yawned.
Mid-century modern, a functional, clean-lined movement in furniture spanning the two decades after the Second World War, has rocketed in value over the past 10 years – in line with top salaries, real estate and design savvy. Chairs, the items for which many mid-century designers flexed their most creative muscle, are the “iconic” items of the era. And they’ve become apt market barometers. As demand grows from middle America to the Middle East, stock is disappearing, and dealers who might have charged $1,000 10 years ago for a Soft-Pad chair by Charles and Ray Eames today charge twice that. Greg James, a buyer for the Fabulous Find in Victoria, reckons prices have risen “30 per cent across the board over the past five years.” Less ubiquitous chairs from voguish names such as Poul Kjaerholm, a Danish minimalist, have appreciated even more. “A decade ago, I’d sell Kjaerholm’s PK22 chairs for £700 [$1,293]. Now it’s more like £2,500 [$4,617],” says Rob McClymont of the Modern Warehouse in London.
“What used to be ‘second-hand’ is now ‘modern antique.’”Fans of the look see it as functional art or fine, collectible design. “When you buy original mid-century modern, your money is not gone,” says Lawrence Blairs, owner of Atomic Design in Toronto. “It’s merely locked away.”If you want to get in on the ground floor, follow the rules of the pros.“Always buy what you like and not what you think will be a good investment,” says Petra Curtis, co-founder of the Midcentury Modern Marketplace directory. “You have to connect with the piece in some way,” says Blairs. “Maybe it reminds you of your grandparents’ house or the colours in a painting. Even if you have limited knowledge of the designer, it’s ultimately how it makes you feel that’s important.”If it’s Eames, you’ll be in the majority, but you’ll also need to keep on the lookout for knock-offs, which have become prevalent in recent years and led to prices levelling off.“Teak chairs can’t be copied officially,” says James, meaning their value will hold.
James recommends lesser-known designers, such as Peter Hvidt of the Danish studio Hvidt & Mølgaard. “Everything he did was solid teak and finger jointed – awesome stuff.”You get what you pay for with a knock-off: inferior quality and dubious materials. “You’d be lucky to sell it for $50 the next day,” says James, “and it’ll eventually end up as landfill.”Reissued classics by manufacturers such as Fritz Hansen and Vitra are handy if you’re after, say, six identical Hans Wegner Wishbone chairs for your dining room, at $1,000 a pop. But take heed: “Once they leave the showroom, they’ll lose 30 per cent of their value, like a car,” says McClymont.A mint-condition vintage Wishbone, by contrast, might cost $500 and will appreciate. “The only time I’d advise someone to buy new is when the piece is rare, like Juhl’s NV45 chairs, which you don’t find any more. You could wait years for a pair, and when they go to auction, they sell for ridiculous money.”The Internet is invaluable for shopping, but if you’re serious about buying, use it as a means to an end.
Many online portals are staffed at best by rookies, who don’t know an Arne Jacobsen from the generic, and at worst by cowboys. The veteran portal 1st Dibs is an exception: trustworthy, albeit expensive. It monitors potential merchants for years before allowing them to sell through the site, “so you know you’re going to get quality,” says Israel Jones, owner of the Swanky Abode in Ohio.Enthusiasts should frequent vintage-furniture fairs and storefront dealers. “Build a rapport,” Curtis says. “Dealers love to talk the nuts and bolts off a piece. You won’t get the same ground knowledge from a sales assistant.” Suss out the dealers in your area. Old hands get great deals down the line, from sourcing to restoration – and that translates into competitive pricing. (Just to make sure, search online for price comparisons.)Crucially, well-known dealers get right of first refusal when locals sell off their contents. “People in their 80s walk into the shop with pictures and ask, ‘Do you want this stuff?’” says James.
“And that’s the best stuff, because if they’re between 80 and 90, they bought it in the fifties and early sixties.”It goes both ways. If you can get on the waiting lists of your favourite dealers, they’ll come to you with the best merch. “A quarter of the stuff we sell you don’t even see on our website, because it goes to the top of the wish list,” says James.Once you’ve zeroed in on a find, sit on it. Assess if the shock mounts are firmly attached. Check for corner brackets, used by amateurs to repair broken teak – they’ll drag down the value. Take into account whether the whole chair is original or a marriage of disparate parts. Then Google the name for marks of authenticity. For example, Eames DSW chairs were made of Fiberglas while reissues are inferior plastic. Early models manufactured by Zenith have a checkerboard label on the underside; models by Cincinatti Milacron have a crescent “C”; Summits Plastic models have a trademark as well.Danish teak of the early postwar period has a more interesting grain than the farmed teak of later stock.
“And if it’s upholstered,” says Israel Jones, “research whether the upholstery is genuine or a replacement.”Spot an opportunity to saveDealers don’t tend to have sales – unless they want a big turnout at a furniture fair. “When they’re selling at the Midcentury Modern Show in London,” says Curtis, “they offer a special one-day discount of 10 per cent.”There’s a lot of leeway on the hunt for a cheap Eames chair. Later models, or pieces with replacement legs, can go for well under $1,000. And in the Eames world, orange is the new black – in the 1950s, orange chairs were mass-produced whereas seafoam and grey are rare – and more expensive(think $1,300). By contrast an early-1950s, mint-condition, rope-edge Eames rocker will put you back $3,700.Prices do vary across regions, however. In big retirement destinations, where people tend to sell off their collections, stock is plentiful so prices come down. “Palm Springs and Florida are good places to look,” says Curtis.