Vitra
Vitra is, to my knowledge, still a private company. It was founded in the early fifties by Willi Felbaum and became the licensed producers of Herman Miller products in Europe. It follows a similar path as Herman Miller, with Rolph Felbaum taking over in the 70's. What is interesting about Vitra is that it has dedicated itself to preserving and promoting design, whereas Herman Miller seems to be more about just the promoting part.
Vitra opened a design museum in a Gehry building in the late 80's and has been pumping out re-issues of lots of the design classics, including actual manufacture of the Eames plastic products (Herman Miller is still the distributer in the US).
So the short answer here is: Yes HP, Rolf Felbaum is a very, very wealthy man 😉
university auctions
I used to work for the U of TN Knoxville. They had a surplus equipment/furniture sale twice a year open to the public. The pickings get slimmer each year as the new replaces the old, but you can sometimes get lucky. If you live in a college town, call the school's admin (maybe physical plant) and find out if they have sales/auctions that are open to the public.
I know a couple of old boy...
I know a couple of old boys that go to the University of Oklahoma and the University of Kansas sales twice a year
last year they got 10 eames buckets with coasters 4 bucks each and I bought several from them plus several time life chairs and alumnium group chairs and tons of tables with the alumium group stands . the year on the bottom of the chairs was 1976 and the tables were 1979 and 1981 so i imange
after 30 years time to say good buy ..... I have not been on a college campus for years accept when i dropped my youngest off at the University of Indiana five years ago
Does any one know do they still use Herman miller chairs on college campus any more.?
but the best deal came 1 year ago when a lovely gal named Rusty got 20 Girard Lafonda chairs from the University of Texas headed to the dumpster. I bought 15 from her for 100 each. she said she gave the janitor 10 bucks each, check this number out on ebay and see what this guy sold 8 of my original Lafonda shells for after he took the cover off and he cleaned them up with elbo grease and paint remover , They look great and our ready for another 30 years , ebay Item number: 110146530700 so you do get lucky some times you just have to hang in there
It allways amazes me how...
It allways amazes me how well things clean up with the old elbow grease, sometimes they can come up almost mint with a bit of sweat, and you're quite right about surviving for another 30 years, more and more people I talk to (not design nuts necessarily) are choosing to get their parents or grandparents furniture re-upholstered or buy vintage, the quality just isn't there in new work.
hp
2 seperate people are sending to my shop in Oklahoma chairs that there parents owned to be redone
1 fellow from LA is sending four Eames aluminum group lounge chairs that his Dad bought in 1956 and they used every day in there family home, he was kind enough to send a photo of him as small child on the furniture,
The other a Eames Lounge chair is coming from Seattle from 1960 that belonged to his Dad both sets of Parents are passed on but they
will live on in the fond memories that these two men shared with this furniture.
I lost my parents 7 years ago and all the wonderful things that they owned were things... but when you remember all the fond memories you had with a specific item that they owned that makes every thing special There is truly no price for that.
redo
Unforunately, Fritz Hansen hasn't done it that way for a long time now. They're bolted right to the chair. I recently had a Swan reupholstered by a very reputable, Fritz Hansen certified upholstery shop and instead of upholstering over the plate it, they bolted it to the bottom. They told me they couldn't do it any other way, despite how shoddy it looks.
The piping seems to be another tricky deal on these. Country laning seems to be all but unavoidable. Even the originals have it to some degree.
Wanted to check for future reference. I may send a swan your way someday.
Sorry for the off-topic posts.
finch
I appreciate you asking always glad to help. I have heard about them doing that but you the customer should tell them that is how you want it.with the metal tucked in the fabric.
Fritz changed his stands just this year on the Jacobsen chairs and i for one do not like it . The knockoffs were making round stands for the last three years out of china. Fritz hansen for years made there signature 3 prong stand since 1958, why they changed i have no idea, The piping is something i have issue with also
This chair is so damn hard to recover I have no idea how they knock that out in Denmark like they do. with the hand sewing, we slaved on that chair for 2 full days trying to get it right and
hand sew it.. the only thing worse was the egg chair, I do know that Hansen is putting tag labels on the out side of the chairs stating that this is original Fritz Hansen chair designed by Arne Jacobsen ( means a lot ) the fakes will be doing it real soon...
University finds
I recently strolled around the campus of Florida Southern College while passing through Lakeland Florida a few months ago. It's a bit of a crumbling beauty. You want to take the whole thing home with you. There were a few pieces that looked like they might have been designed by Wright himself, relegated to the furthest corners.
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/florida/lakeland/floridasouthern/wrig...
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