Internet Antique Gazette » chairs – arm

Eames Chairs

hcst — Mon, 22 Jun 2015 22:56:23 +0000

Eames Chairs

Seating Classics by Mid-Century Designers Ray & Charles Eames: The market for mid-century furnishings and accessories is still hot, and among the hottest are chairs by husband and wife team, Ray and Charles Eames. Collectors love the clean lines of these classic designs, many of which are being manufactured today. Here’s what it will cost to own both new and vintage models.

Ray & Charles & the Eames Era
Few designers contributed more to mid-century design than Ray (1912-1988) and Charles (1907-1978) Eames. Married in 1948, Charles was an architect, and Ray, a painter and illustrator. They met at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan where Charles ran the Design Department.

Together, the Eameses produced leading edge designs for a range of products including furniture, textiles, graphics, films and toys. According to Sally Hoban in her book, Collecting Modern Design, the couple believed that “new technology would lead to good design that would improve peoples’ lives both functionally and intellectually.”

Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright & Alvar Aalto
Charles was inspired by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar Aalto and their use of organic forms. Aalto had also been experimenting with molded plywood, and had early successes in creating the compound curves that fit the human body and mimicked those found in nature. In 1941, experiments with molded plywood lead to a contract with the U.S. Navy for plywood leg splints.

In 1940, Charles and Eero Saarinen submitted the winning entry for the Organic Design in Home Furnishings Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in NY. Their entry included chair prototypes designed for mass production, but these chairs were never made, as manufacturing technology had not kept pace with design.

By 1945, the industrial needs of WWII made more designs possible. Ray and Charles began designing furniture of plastic, fiberglass and aluminum as well as plywood; inexpensive materials that would make affordable furniture, and satisfy the couples mission of, “getting the most of the best to the greatest number of people for the least amount of money.”

An LCW side chair by Charles and Ray Eames for Evan Products Company, California
p4A item D9780269

The LCW & DCW Molded Plywood Chairs
The LCW (lounge chair wood) DCW (dining chair wood) were the Eamses breakthrough designs. The chairs have molded plywood seats and backs, and come in a variety of sizes and finish variations. The LCW and the DCW are all plywood, but the DCM and its slightly larger, side chair version, the LCM (low side chair) have molded seats and backs affixed to a chrome fame via rubber shock mounts, another Eames innovation that solved the previously insoluble problem of successfully fastening two contrasting materials together in an attractive and durable way.

An Eames lounge chair and ottoman
p4A item D9667033

The Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman
Modeled after an English club chair, the Eames lounge chair and ottoman haven’t been out of production since their debut in 1951. The original chair was made of shells of laminated rosewood.

Charles Eames for Herman Miller, a Modernist rocking chair with a fiberglass shell and birch rockers, American, 1958
p4A item D9700067

Eames Fiberglass Shell Chairs
Possibly the most easily recognizable of all the Eames chairs, variations on the shell chair appeared in a multitude of venues, and as knockoffs by competing manufacturers. The shell chair could be dressed up with upholstery and wire legs (Eiffel tower base) or stripped down to its fiberglass shell with straight legs. There was even a rocking chair version. Values depended on finishes, variations, color and conditions, a rocker being one of the most valuable, basic shells in a common colors being the least.

Reference: Collecting Modern Design by Sally Hoban, Miller’s c2001.

-Reference note by p4A Contributing Editor Susan Cramer.

Cockpen Chair

hcst — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 17:17:30 +0000

Cockpen Chair

Named after pew chairs with a Chinese lattice design in the Cockpen Church, Cockpen, Midlothian, Scotland, cockpen chairs were originally made for the aristocratic Dalhousie family, circa 1775. The master cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale provided chairs of this form for Normanton Park, Rutland, and also Harewood House, West Yorkshire. The Chinese influenced design has proved enduring with examples produced throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. It has enjoyed particular popularity with contemporary designers whole have simplified its elegant lines for a sleek modern look while maintaining the classic look of Chinese Chippendale.

Reference note by p4A editorial staff, 2012.

Hitchcock Chairs & Furniture

hcst — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 14:58:15 +0000

Hitchcock Chairs & Furniture

In 1826, master craftsman Lambert Hitchcock built his factory beside the Farmington River in what is known today as Riverton, Connecticut. The factory provided jobs for the local population and became so important to the community, the little hamlet once called “Fork-of-the-Rivers” came to be known as Hitchcocks-ville.

While the art of chair making was well established in Connecticut, Hitchcock introduced new and improved production methods using interchangeable parts. He had learned about this process in 1814 from Eli Terry, the clockmaker who used this method to make clock parts, while serving a woodworking apprenticeship. This technology allowed Hitchcock to produce fine quality furniture that was affordable to a major portion of the growing population of the new republic. Decades later Henry Ford used the same technology to mass produce affordable cars.

Lambert Hitchcock was so confident of the superior quality of his furniture that he signed and guaranteed each piece with the trade-mark that was still used right into the 21st century – L. HITCHCOCK. HITCHCOCKS-VILLE. CONN. WARRANTED. In 1832, after a series of business reverses, the company was reorganized as the Hitchcock, Alford Co. They stenciled their chairs “HITCHCOCK, ALFORD & Co. HITCHCOCKSVILLE, CONN. WARRENTED. But, in an important distinction, many of these stencils have the NN’s in CONN backward. (20th Century L. Hitchcock chairs retain the two backward N’s and add a registration mark [circled R], so anything marked “L. Hitchcock” with backward N’s was made after 1946.) Hitchcock Alford was disolved in 1843. Hitchcock himself moved to Unionville, Connecticut and started a new company. He died there a poor man in 1852.

Most Hitchcock chairs were painted black or dark green and were decorated with stencils and finished with brushed bronzing powder giving a lustrous finish to the design which was characteristic of the chair.

Hitchcock garnered national recognition as “America’s most famous chair maker” and by the early twentieth century hand-stenciled Hitchcock furniture was highly sought after by antique dealers. In 1946, John Tarrant Kenney discovered the dilapidated original factory building while fishing the Farmington river and had the vision to reestablish the company in Hitchcock’s original manufactory building. With the revival of Early American styling, the company again flourished. Hitchcocks-ville again became a bustling community surrounding the factory. There was an annual fair and Russell Carrell’s summer antiques show at the fairgrounds; Jack Kenney would scour the show and buy painted and decorated Hitchcock furniture from the earlier days. The collection rapidly grew, and in 1972 Mr. Kenney established the Hitchcock Museum in the Old Union Church, a Riverton landmark built in 1829. For three decades the museum attracted collectors, dealers, museum curators and decorators interested in studying the Early American style. By 1997, dwindling public attendance forced the company to close the museum, accommodating visitors by appointment only.

The Hitchcock company, now headquartered in New Hartford, Connecticut, continued for many years to produce furniture the same way Lambert Hitchcock did – by hand, providing employment for a substantial number of local people. In 1961, the company opened a retail showroom in the original Hitchcock factory building and later expanded with other locations in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. To meet changing tastes and new trends, the stores showcased the complete line of Hitchcock products including Traditional, 18th Century Formal, Shaker, French Country, Transitional and Mission style, and their new Metropolitan Upholstery and Concord Leather collections. The company closed in May, 2006, a victim of the global economy driving down furniture prices.

Most 20th century Hitchcock chairs are valued in the $40 to $50 range, with a few more bring higher prices depending on design and condition.

reference note courtesy of Northeast Auctions & Ronald Bourgeault, auctioneer, with p4A.com additions.