Welcome to this week’s blog post, we hope you have had a good week and that you are about to have a relaxing weekend. The word ‘Relaxed’ is a key word in this week’s blog post because we’re talking about the Eames sofas and our Wiki section that is dedicated to them.
Did you know that when it comes to buying or selling, our Wiki is a great tool to use to ensure you know what it is that you’re buying, whether you want to find out the release date of the item, the materials used and even the rarity!
To ensure that you sell your item quickly and effectively, it’s important to get the listing information correct. Our Wiki is also a great assistant to use to ensure that you highlight all the key features of an item, thus making it more likely for you to make a sale.
There are three sofas on the Eames.com Wiki; the S-473 Compact Sofa, the 3473 Sofa and also the Teak 2 and 3 Seat Leather Sofa. They all have their own unique features which give them the high value that they all have.
During the post-war period, Charles Eames designed a sofa for their Case Study House. This particular piece was not released or available for the market, but the purpose of the sofa was to make it an asset for the room in hopes to make the area of the room a ‘social space'.
This would allow Charles and Ray Eames to relax in this area and socialise with family and peers.
It took almost a decade for the first prototypes of an Eames sofa to be released to the market and this began in the Eames Office. This is where the S-437 piece was released, and this started the generation of the Eames sofas.
Made from Urethane Foam enclosed in a preference of Vinyl, Leather or Fabric, the s-437 sofa was released in around the mid-1950s. This is an armless sofa which had a thin cushion depth, originally made with a wire frame in the prototype.
However, it proved not to be very cost effective and it was taking a lot of time during the production stage which is why there were some modifications when it was released for the market.
The amazing leather, vinyl and fabric were made by the late great Alexander Girard for Herman Miller.
They created a feature within the sofa, allowing it to collapse the backrest which ensured that it would take up less space for storage and made it more convenient when shipping.
This piece was originally inspired by the ‘built-in' Sofa that the Eames's created for their own home which we discussed earlier on in the blog post.
This piece was asked by Herman Miller to be a ‘follow up’ sofa from the Compact Sofa. They both have a lot of similarities in that they both don’t have arms and their initial shape is quite similar.
However, this sofa had a little more weight on it compared to the Compact Sofa and this was due to it being constructed using aluminium, iron and plywood.
The cushions that it was designed and available in was, 3-inch Urethane Foam with an inch of Dacron finished in Naugahyde Vinyl, Fabric or Leather, depending on preference.
Unfortunately, this piece was discontinued after 9 years of it being released for the market and this was mainly due to the production costs.
The Teak Sofa was released in 1984, around 6 years after the passing of Charles Eames. The product was available in 2-seater and 3-seater formats and was originally designed in the '60s but there was not a consistent flow in the design, hence why it was released many years after.
The cushions used for this Die-cast Aluminium framed sofa was; Urethane Foam enclosed in a choice of Naugahyde or Fabric. The panelling of the cushions could be found in either Walnut or of course, Teak Wood.
This was a statement piece which would be described as a ‘fitting’ design to pay homage to Charles and Ray Eames and their legacy as a whole.
Below are images of the Teak 2 and 3 Seat Sofas. Click to enlarge both images.
Now you know a little more about the background of some of the most iconic Eames Sofas! This blog post touched upon some of the key aspects of each sofa and their history. Our Wiki segment for the ‘Sofas’ section, contains a lot more in-depth information about the sofas, their measurements and extended history about their design process so definitely be sure to head over to the page and take a read.
We hope you enjoyed this week’s blog post.
Until next time, have fun browsing!