Even if it is by Vitra....
on the first white one you posted, there are clearly repairs (the bad drilled-through type) underneath the armrest, and what appears to be an extra set of shockmounts on the headrest.
The base is definitely the vitra version.
Even if it is real, there are so many problems with it, reselling it down the road would be tough. Don't waste your time. Save your money and invest in a good vintage one or a new one from an authorized dealer.
Here is a nice real vitra white Eames Lounger, from the vitra website (click link below):
http://vitra.com/products/designer/charles_ray_eames/lounge_chair_ottoma...
....
thanks. Now that you mentioned it, i did saw what seems to be some kind of screw on the side, that could be from a repairjob of course. I guess this myth was busted pretty fast! 🙂
Of course i would like to buy a new one, but these are just to expensive for me. I live in the Netherlands and a palisander version with Ottoman is appr. 7000 euros, more then 10000 dollar! Importing is a option, but then there are high shippings costs, i have to pay a lot of importtaxes (the look at the original sold over here for the taxcalculation, they don't want parallel import) and i don't know about the warranty.
Is the last white one also a fake or could be a vitra.?
The guy of the first white en the black one just sent me an email, he says they are absolutely original, appr. 25 / 30 years old..... i will ask him about the extra shockmount, base and screws....
Beat me to it
I noticed the screw and the extra mount as well. However, everything else seems to point to Vitra - the base, the tilt, the double welted armrests.
Kajiter - if you are worried about importing costs consider having someone state side disassemble the chair. It can be broken down into some pretty basic parts. Would they charge you as high an import tax if the parts were shipped separately?
ship in parts....
that is maybe an idea. In the movieclip on youtube of the introduction you also see them preparing a chair for shipping. They indeed packed it pretty compact in a box. I'm not really sure if that would help for the importcosts if they're all in one box, but if they were to be shipped separate.....that's an idea, then it's just loose parts and ofcourse much less value! It also seems a bit strange to have a chair like that being send in pieces.... :-/ just imagine a box getting lost.... 🙁
i just got an awnser from the guy selling the chairs; at the end of the really friendly email i said that i'm very sorry, but that it doesn't look real. His response;... but it is.....
not necessarily vitra
icf in italy has been making these (with icf & herman miller on the labels) almost from the beginning of the chairs existance. in fact i saw an icf/herman miller one sell on ebay just a few months ago. also white on white. more recently (in the last 15 years or so) vitra sued icf for the naming rights and won. the icf's havent changed except for dropping the H. M. name. there was a british company that did the same thing as icf (the name escapes me at the moment).the details on the white one you posted are identical to my labeled icf one.
thanks
whitespike. i have seen their labels and they say hille/herman miller just like the older icf's also have h.m. on the label. to me this says that despite the different bases and slightly different upper back supports, they are indeed eames loungers. I couldnt imagine h.m. putting their name on the label if they and eames didnt approve or actually design these differences. the bases do look suspiciously similar to the rolling bases you see shells mounted on.
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