1957 Charles Eames Shell Chair
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GUEST:
My dad bought the chair in probably '57, maybe '58, to rock babies. This was Dad's rocking chair.
APPRAISER:
Were you rocked in the chair?
GUEST:
Oh, yeah. Yes, I have a distinct memory when I was in kindergarten, having a horrible nightmare, and my dad rocking me for hours.
APPRAISER:
Ah, well, that's one thing I love are the stories that are behind these pieces.
GUEST:
This is my dad, right here.
APPRAISER:
And this... aww. Well, you brought in a really cool chair. I mean, I love mid-century modern furniture myself. So I saw this design, and what's not to love? It's... as you may know, this is designed by Charles Eames, one of the great visionaries of all time.
GUEST:
I didn't know that, no.
APPRAISER:
And the company that made the chair was Herman Miller.
GUEST:
Okay, that's the only name I know about it, yeah.
APPRAISER:
And they're called the shell chairs. And these were cutting-edge design during the time. And we look here in the bottom, and we've got the date here of November 21, 1957.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm, yeah.
APPRAISER:
Which is when this fiberglass molded chair was made. Eames had designed fiberglass chairs starting late '40s, 1950. And the earlier production chairs have a rope edge in the bottom here.
GUEST:
Ah.
APPRAISER:
A rope twist, and the rubber pads are slightly different on the bottom. What's really rare about your chair is the color. Oh, okay. This is sea foam green. And it's one of the rarest colors of all the different fiberglass chairs. A monetary value on a 1957 Eames chair like this is about $600 to $900 and as an auction estimate. But it could bring more because of the rare color.
GUEST:
Oh, okay, yeah, yeah.
APPRAISER:
I wouldn't doubt it would do well over that, because sea foam green is just gorgeous.
GUEST:
Oh, that's neat. My dad was a sailor, too, so it makes sense that it's sea foam green.
APPRAISER:
Oh, that's great, that's great.
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