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Eames Coffee Table
Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

In 1949, Charles and Ray Eames designed the Eames Coffee Table as a unique furnishing for their own residence, the legendary Eames House in Pacific Palisades, near Los Angeles. Ever since, the table has contributed to the unique decor of this historic home interior. The rectangular table top, which gives a simultaneous impression of simplicity and luxury, was originally covered in gold leaf. Its dowel-leg base is a variation of the wooden base found on the Eames Plastic Chairs. In the following years, Charles and Ray Eames produced two more of these tables, but with a marble top.

The re-edition of the Eames Coffee Table, which was developed by Vitra in cooperation with the Eames Office, evokes the spirit of the early one-off pieces: fabricated in exquisite materials, this high-quality coffee table is both precious object and utilitarian furnishing. The square or rectangular table tops are made of white marble or solid American walnut. The base, combining black wooden legs with metal cross-struts, provides a stable understructure and emphasises the understated elegance of the Eames Coffee Table.

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

Tabletop Carrara marble, brushed and waxed, or solid American walnut with oiled finish

Substrate MDF board

Base natural or black solid ash, steel rod cross-struts

Dimensions 76 x 76 x H39 cm or 114 x 76 x H39 cm

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949
Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

76 x 76 x H39 cm
Marble - black ash

76 x 76 x H39 cm
Marble - natural ash

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949
Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

76 x 76 x H39 cm
Walnut - black ash

76 x 76 x H39 cm
Walnut - natural ash

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

114 x 76 x H39 cm
Marble - black ash

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

114 x 76 x H39 cm
Marble - natural ash

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

114 x 76 x H39 cm
Walnut - black ash

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

114 x 76 x H39 cm
Walnut - natural ash

Table top

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949
Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

White Carrara marble
brushed and waxed

Solid American walnut
oiled

Base finishes

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949
Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

Black ash

Natural ash (honey tone)

Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949
Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949
Eames Coffee Table Charles & Ray Eames, 1949

CHARLES & RAY EAMES

CHARLES & RAY EAMES

Charles Eames, born 1907 in St. Louis, Missouri, studied architecture at Washington University in St. Louis and opened his own office together with Charles M. Gray in 1930. In 1935 he founded another architectural firm with Robert T. Walsh. After receiving a fellowship in 1938 from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, he moved to Michigan and assumed a teaching position in the design department the following year. In 1940, he and Eero Saarinen won first prize for their joint entry in the competition "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" organized by the New York Museum of Modern Art. During the same year, Eames became head of the department of industrial design at Cranbrook.

Ray Eames, born Bernice Alexandra Kaiser, was born in Sacramento, California in 1912. She attended the May Friend Bennet School in Millbrook, New York, and continued her studies in painting under Hans Hofmann through 1937. During this year she exhibited her work in the first exhibition of the American Abstract Artists group at the Riverside Museum in New York. She matriculated at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1940.

Charles and Ray Eames married in 1941 and moved to Los Angeles, where together they began experimenting with techniques for the three-dimensional moulding of plywood. The aim was to create comfortable chairs that were affordable. However, the war interrupted their work, and Charles and Ray turned instead to the design and development of leg splints made of plywood, which were manufactured in large quantities for the US Navy. In 1946, they exhibited their experimental furniture designs at MoMA. The Herman Miller Company in Zeeland, Michigan, subsequently began to produce Eames furniture. Charles and Ray participated in the 1948 'Low-Cost Furniture' competition at MoMA, and they built the Eames House in 1949 as their own private residence. In addition to their work in furniture design and architecture, they also regularly turned their hand to graphic design, photography, film and exhibition design.

In 1957 Vitra signed a licence agreement with Herman Miller and began producing the Eameses' designs for Europe and the Middle East. Charles and Ray Eames have had a profound and lasting influence on Vitra. It was the encounter with their work that spurred the company's beginnings as a furniture manufacturer. Yet it is not just the products of Charles and Ray Eames that have left a mark on Vitra. Even today, their design philosophy continues to significantly shape the company's values, orientation and goals.