Illustrator Saul Steinberg’s first visit to the Eames Office in 1950 has become a tale of lore. While at 901 (the Eameses warehouse in Venice, CA), Steinberg took a paintbrush to some of the studio’s furniture, floors, and walls—marking them permanently with a lively cast of cartoons. One of these drawings was a sleeping cat curled into an Eames Fiberglass Armchair.
Eames Chair with Steinberg Cat
The Eames Chair with Steinberg Cat has now been faithfully replicated and is being offered in a limited edition in North America and Japan (through Herman Miller) and in Europe (through Vitra).
This collaborative version of the famous ergonomic fiberglass armchair with artist Saul Steinberg is sure to delight fans of both Midcentury modern furniture and felines.
Famed worldwide for giving graphic definition to the postwar age, Steinberg (1914-1999) had one of the most remarkable careers in American art. While renowned for the covers and drawings that appeared in The New Yorker for nearly six decades, he was equally acclaimed for the drawings, paintings, prints, collages, and sculptures he exhibited internationally in galleries and museums.
With the contribution of the Eames Office and the American Eames producer Herman Miller, the new limited edition of the Vitra‘s Eames chair has now been created and it reproduces the original seat from the creative encounter in 500 pieces.
For this purpose, a specialized company scanned the vintage example archived at the Eames Institute and generated a 3D file. The data was used to create an exact model that allowed Steinberg’s design to be applied to the fiberglass shell as faithfully as possible.
Each is hand-painted by an artisan in Germany, tagged with a number, and protected in a lacquered finish for durability and longevity.
The chair will be available starting June 14th. Sign up now here for early access to the collection.
Item for sale by Herman Miller in North America and Japan only. For customers in Europe, please visit vitra.com.
All Steinberg drawings © The Saul Steinberg Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.