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Eames Fiberglass Armchair with Steinberg Cat
Limited edition of 500 pieces available from 14 June |
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Vitra is producing a limited edition of 500 pieces of the Eames Fiberglass Armchair with Steinberg Cat. This unique edition, in collaboration with the Eames Office and Herman Miller, reproduces a drawing sketched on an Eames Fibergrass Armchair shell by Romanian-American artist Saul Steinberg back in the 1950s. | | |
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Sign up below and get early access to the official sale |
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Eames and Steinberg |
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Shortly after Charles and Ray Eames had developed the Shell Chairs, their good friend Saul Steinberg came to visit the Eames Office in Los Angeles at 901 Washington Boulevard. The artist and architect had already made a name for himself with his humorous and occasionally provocative drawings of people and animals – especially cats – with which he repeatedly traversed the boundaries of traditional media.
During his stay, Steinberg spontaneously picked up a brush and drew a number of lively figures on the furniture, floors and walls of the studio. One of the drawn figures was a sleeping cat: Steinberg had it take a nap in one of the armchair shells. Relaxed, with its eyes closed, it seems to have found the perfect spot to rest and remain united with the chair forever. | | |
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In order to recreate the Steinberg Cat as faithfully as possible on each fibreglass shell, the original chair – which is held by the Eames Institute in California – was scanned by a specialist company and the resulting 3D file was used to create a template.
The task of reproducing Steinberg's cat drawing on each individual chair is entrusted to a skilled artist and carried out by hand, using paint that has been painstakingly evaluated to be as close as possible to the original.
Once the cat illustration has been manually applied, the shell is hand-numbered, sealed with a protective lacquer and given a special label.
The Steinberg Cat drawing is used with permission of The Saul Steinberg Foundation. | | |
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Available from 14 June, exclusively from vitra.com |
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Sign up below and get early access to the official sale |
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Eames Fiberglass Chairs |
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In 1948 Charles and Ray Eames participated in the 'International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design' organised by the New York Museum of Modern Art, entering a chair with a seat shell moulded to fit the contours of the human body along with a concept for a variety of bases. Their design won second prize. However, the metal shell proved too complex and expensive to achieve successful mass production. Their search for alternative materials finally led them to fibreglass-reinforced polyester resin. Previously unexploited in the furniture industry, this material allowed the couple to successfully develop the shell design for large-scale production. |
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Image rights |
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The Steinberg Cat drawing is used with permission of The Saul Steinberg Foundation.
Image 1: Staged at the Eames House, Pacific Palisades, California © Eames Foundation, 2023; Image 2: © Shutterstock.com, Peter Stackpole; Image 3: © Estate of Evelyn Hofer; All other images: © Vitra | | |
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