You look so familiar: Part 5 - Wings

Wings...from the subtle to the sublime, they make perfect ergonomic sense. They make perfect design sense too, because chairs in this style are considered some of the most lovely ever produced.

The previous installment of this series on the topic of shell chairs included a 1957 crossover piece by Hans Olsen that had small wing-style arms, but the design element appeared much earlier than that. Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames designed their Organic Chair in the late 1940s, and Eames capitalized on the design later with his DAX chair, which will be included in yet another category.

Harry Bertoia's svelte Bird Chair made subtle use of the feature, while Robin Day's spectacular Royal Festival Hall chair took modern seating to the brink of flight.

Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen Organic chair - 1940
loc.gov

Eero Saarinen Womb chair - 1948
treadwaygallery.com

Jupp Ernst chair by Helmut Lortz - 1950s
grainedit.com

Thonet - 1950s
1stdibs.com

Robin Day Royal Festival Hall chair - 1951
theargus.co.uk

Harry Bertoia Bird chair - 1952
knoll.com

Eero Saarinen

Eero Saarinen (1910-1961) was born in Finland and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1923. He was the son of internationally famous architect Eliel Saarinen. His mother was a textile designer and sculptor, and his sister was a designer and interior decorator.

Eliel Saarinen designed the Cranbrook campus outside Detroit, Michigan, but the entire family worked on the project. Cranbrook would remain a major influence on Eero's career, serving as a model of artistic collaboration and the concept of "total environment," which encompassed landscape, buildings, furnishings and decorative objects.

During the 1930s and 1940s Saarinen helped bring modern design to the mainstream of America. He collaborated with his father and with partners such as Charles Eames and Ralph Rapson, creating winning designs for furniture and architecture.

In 1937 he designed the Combined Living-Dining Room-Study project for Architectural Forum an during World War II, he worked on projects to develop housing prototypes for returning veterans and their families. Two of his best known residential designs are the Case Study House #9 with Charles Eames, better known as the Entenza House, and the Miller House, designed in 1957, which is a brilliant example of Saarinen's "total environment."

Saarinen's commercial works include the General Motors Technical Center, the United States Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, better known as the Gateway Arch, New York's Trans World Airlines Terminal and the Dulles International Airport Terminal outside Washington, D.C. Saarinen pioneered the use of self-rusting Cor-ten steel and designed the first mirror glass curtain wall, as well as the concept of the corporate campus.

Saarinen designed furniture throughout his entire career, exploring new materials, innovative construction techniques and sculptural forms. In 1940 he and Charles Eames won first prizes in the Museum of Modern Art's Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition, laying the foundation for his later designs for Knoll Associates. His Womb chair and Pedestal series of chairs and tables have become icons of mid-century design.

From eerosaarinen.net

Case Study House #9 - Entenza House
dailyicon.com

Miller House
archdaily.com

Tulip table from Pedestal series
classicdesigns.it

Tulip chairs from Pedestal series
knoll.com

Womb chair
brooklynmuseum.org

Grasshopper chair and ottoman
1stdibs.com

Dulles International
greatbuildings.com

Gateway Arch, St. Louis
artcyclopedia.com

Mid2Mod hits a milestone and MCM hits retirement age

I didn't set off any fireworks on the Fourth of July because I was saving them for the day I hit 100,000 page views on my blog, which I did yesterday! Thanks, everyone, for all your support and positive comments (and a special thanks to those of you who have come to visit me from all over the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and from as far away as Memphis, Tennessee and Ontario, Canada). I follow many of your blogs as faithfully as you do mine and enjoy them tremendously.

Thanks for over 100,000 page views!

Speaking of blogs I follow...This fueledbycoffee cartoon was featured on one of my favorite blogs--Mid-Century Austin Living--a few days ago, and while we all share some readers in common, I thought I'd post this for those of you who don't follow the other two blogs yet. It's too cute to miss, especially for those of you who are nearing my age. (I just turned 63 at the end of June and have been retired since 2002, so these items are quickly becoming no joking matter. Any of you would-be entrepreneurs out there want to start cranking them out for us Baby Boomers?)

I'm still  laughing about the Noguchi tub rails and the La-Z-Boy womb chair. I need those!

In the store: Selig Imperial

After our weekend sale, the store was really empty, so this week we've had to focus on building inventory back up. Monday the SIL picked up three coffee tables and a sofa table. Yesterday we picked up all the auction furniture, which included several credenzas, a vanity and a couple of chests, all of which I'll show you when we get them rubbed down with teak oil and displayed nicely on the floor.

Last night the SIL, daughter and the boys went out to pick up an upholstered swivel chair, and today we pick up a huge room divider and look at several daybeds and sofas.

The piece we're having the most fun with is a black Selig Imperial chair that looks vaguely like the offspring of a somewhat scandalous union between a Hans Wegner Ox chair and an Eero Saarinen Womb chair.  Or Darth Vader's helmet. Either way, it's cool, and we like it. A lot.

You have to admit that Selig knew how to take someone else's popular design and morph it into something they could sell. There's no telling how many Eames-style loungers they produced...and to be fair, those are still considered a high-quality knockoff.  The same is true of the chair we have. It's an extremely comfortable, well-made chair, even if its lineage is a little unusual.