Wright Auction

The design of the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman—arguably, their best-known—began with an asymmetrical “lounging shape” conceived for the Museum of Modern Art’s Organic Design competition in 1940 by Charles Eames and his then-design partner, Eero Saarinen. In the intervening years, Charles would go on to solidify and actualize his design concepts with his partner and wife, Ray (née Kaiser) Eames, reviving early experiments in molded plywood along the way, like the 1956 introduction of the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman. (A note from Ray to Charles dated August 1955 describes refining touches made by Alexander Girard, Don Albinson, and Ray herself, noting that they “kept testing and going to sleep in it!”) 

Incorporating elements of earlier designs—molded plywood shells, rubberized shock-mount connections, an aluminum base adapted from the Eames Molded Plastic Chair—the set strove to provide an update to the classic English club chair and provide “the warm, receptive look of a first-baseman’s mitt.” As their home provided the backdrop for the couple’s gracious hosting of a famously eclectic group of friends and associates, providing “a special refuge from the strains of modern living,” so too does the lounge chair and ottoman.