1960s Eames 3474 Time Life Executive Lobby Desk Chair Vitra ES104 Black Leather
An extremely rare and museum-worthy 1960s model of the Eames Time-Life Desk Chair in lovely vintage condition. Widely considered the most iconic office chair design of the 20th Century, this especially rare version of an outstanding armchair will provide superb quality and comfort and will add a quintessential Mid-Century, 1960s-cool, ‘Mad Men’ aesthetic to any interior.
Eames Time-Life Desk Chairs are in high demand for their quality, durability and scarcity, especially in working condition and upholstered in leather, and even more so if they’re one of the oldest, first-generation models from the 1960s, such as this one. What makes this particular chair even more of a special piece is that this model hardly ever comes to market and a recent exhaustive search has found only one other – in a design museum.
A real gem, a design collector’s delight and one of the rarest early versions of one of the most sought-after chairs, this armchair was made 1960-1968 (or 1961-1970 depending on which maker’s website you read) and was produced in Switzerland by Vitra, who have held the European licence for manufacturing Eames furniture since 1957. The only other example we’ve found of this extremely rare European version of this much sought-after design icon is on the Vitra Design Museum’s website itself.
This superb chair goes by several names and can be called: the Eames Time Life Desk Chair, the Eames Executive Office Chair, the Eames 3474 (manufactured 1960-1968) or the later ES104 (manufactured 1968-1985). To somewhat further confuse the name, this super chair is similar to, but distinct from its precursor, the Time-Life Lobby Lounge Chair (which was made as a lounge chair specifically for the lobby of the Time Life Building in New York), and so this chair can also sometimes be called an Eames Lobby Chair, or an Eames Lobby Desk Chair. We like to use its correct moniker, the Eames Time Life Lobby Desk Chair or Eames 3474, which was released in 1961 as an adaptation of the slightly shorter, wider, squarer and more angle-backed Eames Time Life Lobby Lounge Chair released in 1960.
Expertly made, this extremely comfortable and reassuringly heavy armchair features plush, padded and buttoned black leather cushions to the seat, back and arms, over an aluminium frame set on the 1960s four-star aluminium base.
Distinguishing it from the Herman Miller (American licensee) produced 1960s version are the Vitra bolt-handle tilting mechanism and the Vitra black plastic ball feet casters with aluminium hoods, making this particular model an extremely rare (almost never seen outside of the Vitra Design Museum catalogue) version of this already very rare and much sought-after armchair.
All in all this is an incredibly rare, museum-worthy 1960s design icon, which won’t fail to add outstanding quality, comfort and quintessential Mid Century style and sophistication to any setting.
AUTHENTICITY
The labels on these early chairs appear to have been stuck to the underside only and as such, few labels still remain and such is the case with this chair, which no longer has an Eames or Vitra label. However, we’re 100% confident that this is an original 1960s Eames chair by Vitra, as the exact same chair (in beige leather) is on the Vitra Design Museum’s website with inventory number ‘MEA-1270’, named the ‘3474/ES104/Eames Executive Office Chair’ and dated 1961-1970. It’s interesting to note that this Vitra date differs slightly to the 1960-1968 date given on the Eames website, but such are the minor cataloguing differences between companies in the pre-digital era. Further reassurance to its authenticity comes from the Eames website, which states that “all examples we have seen to date” of unlicensed reproductions of the Desk Chair, “always have 5 star bases and pneumatic lift mechanisms”, neither of which are the case with this original 1960s chair.
CONDITION
This chair is in good vintage condition with signs of its age. Solid, sturdy, structurally sound and expertly crafted, the armchair swivel mechanism works beautifully, as do the tilt mechanism and smooth casters. The aluminium frame has marks and scratching to show its age and the leather has all buttons intact, has been treated to keep it rejuvenated and looking its best and is largely in good condition with areas of wear, including to-be-expected marks, nicks and ageing, some historically and sympathetically repaired tears to the seat and grazing to the side of one armrest and to the rear panel and rear corner piping. These early versions have a rather difficult-to-use manual raise and lower mechanism directly under the seat, but we think at some point this one might have been fixed in position as we can’t get it to raise or lower. Overall it's a fantastic, super-comfortable, highly usable and unbelievably rare chair in lovely vintage condition and if well looked after it should remain just as wonderful for many more decades to come – please see the photos.
MEASUREMENTS
Chair: Height – 91cm, Width – 68cm, Depth – 69cm, Seat Height – 50cm, Seat Width – 57cm, Seat Depth – 47cm, Arm Height – 64cm, Weight – 26kg.
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