could anyone help me with the following: are these DCW chairs real or fake? i'd like to buy them but am not completely sure.
seller says these chairs are from the early 50s, all screws and shock mounts are all original and in excellent condition. i don't see any labels underneath and am not sure they are original or worth buying.
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I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss them
based solely on the 5-2-4 screw pattern.
Need more good detail shots of the spine, back, and bottom showing shock mounts. A side view of the spine showing the laminations where it bends from horizontal to vertical might help, too.
They do look to be in very good condition, though... maybe too good.
I'd put money on authentic. T...
I'd put money on authentic. The condition does look potentially too good. Most likely they were just refinished or something along those lines. The 5-2-4 was in fact used in the 50's and the shape looks correct. The labels also commonly fell of for those chairs.
extra pics
Hello again,
Some extra images of the shock mounts etc.
Maybe this is of extra help, I certainly hope so.
In case they are original and from early 50s (seller says the black dot in between the screws indicates they are made in 52-54), what would they be worth approximately?
Thanks again for your kind help!
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I'll vote authentic, too.
I don't see anything to indicate otherwise. And there's nothing obvious to confirm any refinishing, either, at least nothing inappropriate. Looks like shock mounts may have had some so-so work done and might need more.
I like the early '50's stab, as well. Nice face veneers. Good set.
Another vote for real
They look like HM production DCWs from the 1950s to me. The giveaway is the lighter-colored, tapering portion in the middle of the plywood spine, when seen from the side. I have only seen that feature in the earlier production DCW / LCW chairs.
No idea whether they've been refinished from the pictures. However, chances are that if they look a little too new, they've been refinished.
Value - maybe $500 apiece? Haven't followed auctions that closely recently, but I think that's been their going rate for awhile.
There's always risk.
One can only glean so much from tiny photos on a screen. They look good to me, but, of course, advice on an anonymous internet discussion forum is worth exactly what it cost.
I'd look at variables like the seller, your particular market, relative rarity, condition, and any comps you can find to help establish price.
Bon chance!
FWIW, an almost identical...
FWIW, an almost identical pair of DCWs sold at auction in Chicago last week for around $800 total, which works out to about $500 apiece after buyer's premium and tax (for retail buyers).
Similar features include 5-2-4 screws, tapered inner lighter wood ply in spine, dot between the "2" screws, and no label.
In fact, I thought they may even be the same chairs as the OP's until I compared the wood grain and saw they were different.
To follow up on our German friends' cautionary comments, does anyone know of knockoffs (vintage or recent) that have the tapering inner ply in the spine, with lighter wood no less?
One has to believe
that at some point the effort required to get even half the details right just isn't worth the trouble for a lousy 500 bucks. I mean really, even I won't work *that* cheap.
There can't really even be that much room in the knock-offs without substantial volume and enough buyers that don't care.
Of course there are petty criminals attempting to pass off tarted-up Eames stuff on eBay to eager neophytes and "caviar emperor" applies to every transaction, but come on. These chairs don't smell like "modernesia" or his ilk to me. At worst, they've been refinished and need work on the shock mounts making them worth what, $300 each?
In the end, though, all that's easy for me to say. It's not my money and, as far as anyone here knows, I could be the one selling them!
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