Upholstered Wire Chair Prototype

On the heels of the 1950 debut of molded fiberglass arm shell chairs, and before they had refined the side shell chairs, Herman Miller introduced the Eames Wire Chair in 1951. At the time, the wire shell chairs could be purchased with thin upholstered pads in various fabrics—either a single-piece pad that covered the entire seat, or a lower-priced two-piece “bikini” pad that left part of the chair’s wire visible. Decades later, the designers returned to the concept, experimenting with a version of the wire chair upholstered with deep, plush cushions reminiscent of the Soft Pad Group. The concept never made it out of the Eameses’ workshop, but this prototype gives a sense of what a “Soft Pad Wire Chair” could have been. The thick cushion, divided into inner and outer rings by a deep seam, covers the wire frame, and is held taught on the reverse side by drawstring-like twine. In a photograph from 1969 the prototype is shown with a “cats cradle” base, but as is typical of chairs that were saved at 901, it later migrated to this contract base.