1907–1978 / 1912–1988
The Los Angeles partnership that worked plywood and fiberglass into shapes mass production could actually hold, and set the terms for everything after.
Charles and Ray Eames married in 1941, moved to Los Angeles and started bending plywood in their apartment. The leg splints they made for the Navy during the war taught them the process and the chairs followed. By 1950 they were working in fiberglass, and the shell chair became the first mass-produced plastic chair to reach a mainstream American market.
Herman Miller has manufactured the work in the United States since the late 1940s. Vitra took Europe and the Middle East when the two companies dissolved their joint venture in 1984. Both are authorised and both are still producing.
Because production never stopped, edition and condition do all the pricing work. The earliest fiberglass shells, moulded by Zenith Plastics before Herman Miller brought the process in house, are the ones collectors chase, and their surfaces have grown more interesting with age as the fibers rise through the resin.
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Marks, editions, patina and production partners — fact-checked for this designer.
