Identify designer of this sofa?  

Takoda: I am sorry my response appears harsh to you. I do my best to be courteous, and I am interested in this unusual sofa. Consider the effort that Spanky went to in order to attempt to figure out what the handwriting says. All we need is another photo of it to be posted, yet that still has not happened. Considering that you are indeed interested in learning about design objects, I believe you would have posted a photo of the writing.

Again Leif, I don't understand what you are implying in your last sentence. Please explain. Are you assuming that I didn't try to find out anything about this sofa. But then again you've made up your mind as to what people should be doing on this forum to be worthy of posting and what is worthy of your praise along with your professional assessment of the topic in hand. Errr...... some of us are newcomers, I did mention that and if I didn't, I am now. Maybe you can post the protocol as to what us 'newcomers' should do in order to meet up to your standards.

I am not going to put words in his mouth ..... but it gets pretty annoying when people keep asking for help, you tell them what you need to help them, they ignore it, and just keep asking for help. How hard is it to take some pictures and post them on this site?

You realize that none of us are getting paid for this assistance, right? We help because we love this area of design, enjoy the hunt, want to try to share what we love with others, etc. If you are asking for my help, however, but ignore everything I say, then my assistance will be rapidly fleeting.

If you want help identifying furniture, designed between the decades of 1940-1970, this is the right place .... but you have to show the initiative and desire to help, learn, and care about what others are giving. I would not have even responded, at least Leif tried to spark some sort of further effort out of pocketprince, rather than just giving up.

What Zephyr said.

These kinds of threads always make me think that the person asking the question doesn't actually have physical access to the piece, and is instead trying to gauge whether or not to buy it.

Yeah, and they dont want to say anything about that fact, because they are afraid someone on here is going to figure out where it is listed, and steal their great find. It definitely would explain the quality of photos, and lack of further photos.

It is too bad, because I really am interested in finding out more about this sofa. It is definitely a striking piece, but I fear that we will end up finding out that it is from Conns .... you know, 'like Best Buy, but only in the South.'

I think a lot of people find this place by doing a google search for "identify [sofa/chair/table/Eames year of production/fill in the blank]". Some describe themselves as longtime readers posting for the first time--and they have an idea of who's who here and the depth of help that's available. But many others are completely new to the place and quite possibly not interested in getting involved in a deeper way---which is fine! Traffic to the site is good. It's part of what keeps the joint up and running.

On the flip side, those of us who post regularly and have been doing so for years---we're all well aware of how the same questions come up again and again and how tedious it can be to answer the same basic queries day in and day out, including how to look for clues, how to photograph those clues, what kind of stuff is probably not a clue at all ("the seller said he got it from the original owners' neighbor's son who swears they bought it in Sweden in 1955").

And some of these people who come here for help are not super serious about it, or they may have also asked on some other venues, or they may not own the thing yet, as someone above suggested---and of course there are always those who are fishing for an ID so they can list it and get more money, but they don't want to admit this.

Just sifting through all these scenarios (and others) each time there's an ID query is a job. Add to that the human inclination to not read very thoroughly (which I'm guilty of myself ALL the time), plus the difficulty in conveying humor in writing, AND sometimes a language barrier on top of everything else---well. Of course it gets bumpy sometimes.

Oh, and PS, I spent all of 60 seconds deciphering (correctly or incorrectly) the handwritten words on the back, so that wasn't a big deal at all. I do that kind of thing a lot just for fun and rarely even post about it unless it actually adds to the discussion, which usually it doesn't.

Dear Spanky and Zephr,

I appreciate the insight to how you interpret the motivation behind the poster. Maybe it would be helpful to have the forum admin to post at the top of the ID thread about the need for detailed pictures. Some people just don't know enough about what pictures of the item to post; such as the bottom of the piece, any markings, etc. We can't assume they know. My job of dealing with the public for over 25 yrs. has taught me this aspect of human nature.

As for the motivation behind as to why someone is posting on the forum, I don't see what the reason behind a person's posting matters. If someone finds a piece that they don't even have yet, what does it matter. If they can buy a piece it turns out to be worth something, then all the power to them. Even if it's the only post they ever make to this site for the purpose of ID'ing, no big deal. They may refer someone else, and that person may refer someone else, and that person may buy something off of the buy/sell section. It's all good. Traffic to a website is paramount to it's success.

If the ID section is a 'job' and should be for people who want deeper involvement in this site/forums, then the web admin should state so. To participate begrudgingly on the basis of thinking the poster is 'not serious' about what this site is all about will make answering the poster's questions seem tedious. Maybe I feel this way because of the combination of my age and from being in a crazy high stress job where things that were of dire importance of the utmost serious nature were just mere 5 second flames on the end of a match. I'm just trying to convey that to you guys/gals to look on the lighter side of life.

As for a person's motivation for asking, even if they are asking with the intention of selling the piece, isn't it better for them to post here due to this site's ability to Buy & Sell? I'd much rather buy a piece from this site vs. Ebay. At least it's not going through a person to a middle person to eventually the buyer, and maybe someone on this site can get a very nice piece at an affordable price. This is how I look at it. I'm promising myself that once my house is fixed up, I'd like to reward myself with a nice Lane furniture coffee table set and I'd rather look on this site. Or maybe I can trade my mid-century patio set for something else here. I always try to look at how a situation can be made into something good or beneficial no matter what the circumstances are. Maybe Pocketprince can offer his sofa for sale here if he doesn't want to keep it. I just wish my house wasn't such a wreck at the moment. I do love that sofa. And ending with that, I hope I didn't offend anyone. I think the entire discussion on this thread was an eye opener.

Spanky, i think it says "Lyst l

You bring up valid points Takoda, I probably need to chill a bit.

As an aside, I don't think many of us that post on the forum, have things for sale on the Buy/Sell portion of the site. I would guess that it is a pretty low percentage of posters that also sell here.

Also, I suspect that you wont find any Lane Acclaim on the Buy/Sell portion of this site, so when it is time to look, this site should probably not be your starting place.

All that aside, I will try to curb my cynicism and be a bit more optimistic.

Cool Beans Zephr. I guess I'll continue to see if I can find out more about this sofa. Starting tomorrow I 've got a busy 5 days coming up. Preparing for hosting a neighborhood get together cookout. About 40 people coming to our neighborhood little beach here. Enjoy the holiday!

Great comments, Takoda! I hope I didn't sound like I thought it mattered much why someone ends up here, or their motives in seeking an ID, or anything else. I do think that it's easy to jump to conclusions a lot of them time when you can't hear the inflection behind the words, or when you are stressed about totally unrelated things---or when a new poster reminds you of a few individuals in the past who did turn out to be genuinely combative or rude. Thankfully those tend not to come around too often.

My Panton Home--Lyst leder/l

Well this took a strange turn. Leif I'm sorry but I can't just look at the leg shoe and tell you what wood it is. I just have no idea @_@! That is why I put the close up of the shoe. Yes I should have taken a close up of the writing. Sorry.

And I posted again because no one else seemed interested. I also find it weird that everyone came to this thread to speculate my reason for wanting to find out about the sofa D: so rather than speculate I will tell you.

I bought this sofa recently because I think it is absolutely stunning. I bought it off gumtree in Australia. The seller had it listed as being designed by ascend Ellekjaer, however, I don't really see how he came to that conclusion. So I googled forums where I could potentially find out more. This forum came up. The sofa is currently in my garage as on of my cats seems determined on attacking the leather. Will I sell this sofa? That depends on whether or not it is easily replaceable. I like things that are unique and I haven't seen a sofa like it which means I woll probably keep it.

Anyway I'll take a close up of the writing tomorrow. Anything else that you think will help?

A clear well lit close up of the dark wood foot!

First thing in the morning (12.20am here D:!) I'll get a photo of the foot and the writing!