The Last Decade of Eames Furniture
In their final years of furniture design, the Eameses reimagined earlier works using new materials and technology to meet the evolving needs of modern workplaces.
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Eames
Institute
Cast Ottoman Stretcher
Fiberglass Side Shell
692 Dining Table
“Keep Out of the Kazam Please” Note
Marble Top Coffee Table
“This is Bett’s” Postcard
Patang
“La Fonda Restaurant Table” Prototype
“Chairs Designed by Charles Eames” Postcard
Western Dining at the Nut Tree (Variant 1) Postcard
“Alarm” Toy Boat
Fiberglass Side Shell
Patang
St. Mary’s Church at Christmas Postcard
City Palace Jaipur Postcard
Splint Label for Evans Products Company
House & Garden magazine, November 1946
Rebus Christmas Card
ET151 Segmented Base Table
Fashion Drawing: Yellow Day Dress with Black and Yellow Jacket
Black Bird Kite
Fiberglass Side Shell
Scale Study for Plyformed Wood Company Logo
“Above the Canopy of a Forest of Steel Trees” Postcard
Child’s Chair
Carved Spreader 3
“The Sofa by Charles Eames” Postcard
ET202 Universal Base Table
Cast Armrest 1
Seat Cover Prototype
“The Best Tree Tea” Illustration
Eames Tandem Seating Brochure
1675 Table
Upholstered Wire Chair Prototype
Child’s Stool
House of Cards Note
Industrie und Handwerk Schaffen neues Hausgerät in USA Catalog
670, Lounge Chair
EC176 Loose Cushion Armchair (Casters)
CTM (Coffee Table Metal)
Barrel Organ
DSS-TA Tablet-Arm Stacking Side Chair
House of Cards Mock-up Process (Box 1)
Fiberglass Side Shell
Eames Soft Pad Armchair on Drafting Chair Base Prototype
Balance Toy
691 Coffee Table
Photograph of Charles from College
Japanese Top
ES108 Eames Sofa
Drawing of House
White Horse Mask
DSX-36 Secretarial Pull-Up Chair
Fiberglass Armchair with Steinberg Cat
Japanese Toy Fish Game
Occasional Table Prototype
Photograph of Steinberg Drawing Projected onto Hedda Sterne with Glass
EA219 Tilt-Swivel High Back Desk Armchair
The Eames Collection contains more than 40,000 objects spanning the expansive creative practice of Ray and Charles Eames. Drawn largely from the Eames Office at 901 Washington Boulevard in Venice, California, the holdings—which the Eames family asked the Institute to safeguard—include one-of-a-kind design prototype parts and pieces, early examples of their iconic furniture, extensive photographs, correspondence, tools, ephemera, and personal artifacts collected over decades of experimentation, travel, and collaboration. Together, these materials provide the world’s most intimate view into the Eameses’ work, which shaped, and continue to shape, modern design across furniture, architecture, exhibition design, film, and visual communications.
The Collection exists today because Lucia Eames as the owner and Llisa Demetrios as registrar spent decades caring for and archiving the materials that remained outside institutional archives. Believing Ray and Charles’s iterative process to be as important as their finished work, incredible care has been put into accounting for virtually every piece of material at the closure of the Eames Office in Venice, California. Today, the Eames Institute stewards the Collection through ongoing cataloging, preservation, research, and public engagement, ensuring that this remarkable archive is accessible to current and future generations at the Eames Archives, Eames Ranch, and the Institute’s forthcoming museum, as well as through loans to peer institutions.
In their final years of furniture design, the Eameses reimagined earlier works using new materials and technology to meet the evolving needs of modern workplaces.
The Eameses’ eclectic collection of toys goes beyond fun and games, it also offers a window into the couple’s singular approach to design.
In the summer of 1950, the artist Saul Steinberg spent a day at play within the Office of Charles and Ray Eames resulting in an iconic collaboration.
Eames chairs have always stolen the spotlight, but an adjacent thirty-year legacy of table designs demonstrates the designers’ same thoughtful approach to problem-solving.
From scraps and scribbles to maquettes and models, the Eames Collection contains countless examples that illustrate Ray Eames’s unique working methods and iconic collaborations.
The Eames Aluminum Group originated as outdoor furniture for a specific architectural commission, but has subsequently become one of the most recognizable and successful Eames designs.
From promotional tools created by the Eameses, to communication devices from a bygone era, postcards offer a unique window into Ray and Charles’s world.
The Eameses’ quest to create a comfortable and affordable shell chair from a single material led to two iconic designs—and limitless permutations.
As World War II raged overseas, Ray and Charles turned their practice toward the war effort, and in the process learned lessons that set the stage for a life in design.
By the time Ray Kaiser met Charles Eames in 1940 each had led remarkable lives marked by restless curiosity and creative pursuits.