--- title: "The Eames Lounge Chair, 1956 to Now" url: https://quietmenace.com/design/eames-lounge-chair-history/ author: Quiet Menace Editors section: Design published: 2026-10-05 updated: 2026-10-13 topics: Mid-Century Modern, Industrial Design --- # The Eames Lounge Chair, 1956 to Now > Molded plywood, soft leather and a TV debut in 1956. How Charles and Ray Eames reinvented the club chair, and how to spot the real thing today. In 1956 a leather armchair made its debut on daytime television. It appeared on Home, the NBC show hosted by Arlene Francis, with Charles and Ray Eames on set and the chair itself showing off three curved shells of rosewood-veneered plywood on a swiveling cast aluminum base. Charles reportedly wanted it to look like a well-worn baseball glove. Seventy years on, Herman Miller and Vitra still build the 670 chair and 671 ottoman in a form close to that original, and counterfeiters have never stopped copying it. ## Venice, California, Mid-1950s The chair came out of the Eames Office in Venice, California, run by the husband and wife team. By the mid-1950s they were already the most celebrated designers in America. They had spent the 1940s pioneering molded plywood, first for wartime projects and then for chairs, and their furniture for Herman Miller had turned modern design into something ordinary families could buy. The lounge chair was a different kind of challenge. Their earlier pieces were light, affordable and mass-produced. This one would be a luxury object, built to be the most comfortable seat in the house. ### A club chair, rebuilt The starting point was the traditional English club chair, the deep leather armchair of gentlemen's clubs and libraries. The Eameses wanted to keep its generous scale and comfort while rebuilding it with modern materials and techniques, broken in and welcoming like that baseball glove. A popular story holds that the very first chair was made as a gift for their friend, the film director Billy Wilder. It is widely repeated in design writing, though accounts differ on the details, so treat it as part of the chair's legend rather than its documented production history. ## Three Shells and Hidden Clips The construction is where the genius lies. The chair has three curved plywood shells, one each for the headrest, backrest and seat, all formed under heat and pressure in molds. Leather cushions attach to the shells with hidden clips, so there are no visible screws or nails on the upholstery. A cast aluminum base swivels and tilts the chair back at a relaxed angle, and the matching ottoman follows the same logic. | Detail | Original 1956 production | Current production | |---|---|---| | Model numbers | 670 chair, 671 ottoman | 670 chair, 671 ottoman | | Shell plies | Five layers | Seven layers | | Face veneer | Brazilian rosewood | Cherry, walnut, palisander and others | | Sizes | Classic only | Classic plus a taller size added in 2008 | | Makers | Herman Miller, plus licensed European makers | Herman Miller and Vitra | The result looks heavy but feels light, and the gaps between the shells give the chair its floating silhouette. Comfort and rigor turn out to be compatible here, engineering you sink into. It is furniture that shows exactly how it is made, which ties it to the honest design philosophy in our feature on [Dieter Rams and the ten principles of good design](https://quietmenace.com/design/dieter-rams-ten-principles/). ## Prime Time for a Chair That television launch was unusually modern for a piece of furniture, and it helped make the chair famous far beyond design circles. The Museum of Modern Art in New York later added a 1956 rosewood example to its collection, donated by Herman Miller in 1960. ![Mid-century modern living room with an Eames chair, wood furniture and a record player](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1778685606969-3b4ab4b0bf8e?w=1600&h=1067&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) *A mid-century living room built around an Eames chair, the way the design was meant to be lived with Photo by Nathaniel Spence on Unsplash* ### Who builds it Herman Miller has produced the chair continuously in the United States since 1956. The company is now part of MillerKnoll. For Europe and the Middle East, the Swiss firm Vitra is the authorized manufacturer, and it describes making the chair with methods that date back to the 1950s. The current range is on [Vitra's Lounge Chair page](https://vitra.com/en-gb/product/lounge-chair). ### From rosewood to palisander For its first few decades, the chair's shells wore Brazilian rosewood veneer over five layers of plywood. In the early 1990s, as Brazilian rosewood became heavily restricted, production moved to other woods and a stronger seven-layer construction. For the chair's 50th anniversary in 2006, Herman Miller introduced a version in sustainably sourced palisander, which brought back some of the dark, figured look of the originals. In 2008, Herman Miller and Vitra added a taller and deeper version alongside the classic size, since people today are, on average, taller than they were in 1956. Vitra also offers special white and black editions with pigmented or lacquered shells. ## Spotting a Fake The chair is one of the most counterfeited pieces of furniture in the world. The problem started almost immediately, and in 1962 the Eameses ran newspaper ads warning buyers about imitations. A few basics help separate authentic examples from copies. - Genuine chairs carry manufacturer labels or medallions under the seat or ottoman, and their style changed over the decades. - Look for three separate plywood shells and cushions that attach without visible fasteners. - The base and arm supports should be solid cast aluminum with a clean finish. - Buy from an authorized dealer or a specialist who can document a vintage chair's history. Vintage rosewood chairs from the early decades are the most sought-after. As with collectible watches such as the [Rolex Submariner](https://quietmenace.com/watches/rolex-submariner-history/), original parts and honest condition matter more than a showroom shine. ## Built to Be Handed Down The chair sits at the center of the mid-century modern revival and works in almost any interior, from a book-lined study to a minimalist loft. It also fits the Quiet Menace idea of things worth owning, objects made well enough to be repaired and handed down, like a bespoke suit from [Savile Row](https://quietmenace.com/travel/savile-row-bespoke-visitors-guide/) or a mechanical [Leica M6](https://quietmenace.com/tech/leica-m6-film-revival/). Herman Miller tells its own [design story of the chair and ottoman](https://hermanmiller.com/en_au/products/seating/lounge-seating/eames-lounge-chair-and-ottoman/design-story), and the [design section](https://quietmenace.com/design/), our [mid-century modern archive](https://quietmenace.com/topics/mid-century-modern/) and the wider [industrial design topic](https://quietmenace.com/topics/industrial-design/) have more. If you are looking at a vintage example, look under the seat before anything else. The label under the seat will tell you more than the leather on top. --- Filed under: [Mid-Century Modern](https://quietmenace.com/topics/mid-century-modern/), [Industrial Design](https://quietmenace.com/topics/industrial-design/) Hero image: Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash (Unsplash License)