I know this has been discussed on here but everything still seems a little foggy to me. I have an elephant hide gray armchair with an original cats cradle base. It does not have the rope edging, but does have really thick grass-like fiber content. It also bears no label or stamping. I know there are several things that can determine the age but could someone map them out a little more clearly? I always see Zenith plastics referred to also but how do you tell if yours was made there?
thanks
MJ
After Herman Miller took over production they used a paper label for a couple of years - until about 1955ish. After 1955-56 the Chairs were embossed with the elongated M of the Herman Miller logo. In 1957ish the name Herman Miller was also stamped into the tooling underneat the embossed M.
I say ish, because even Herman Miller is a little unsure in their records as to when exact changes took place. To add to the confusion many of the shells were produced in a certain year, then warehoused until there was demand for them (especially unusual colors). They were then assembled with bases and often given an ink date stamp (like a library book stamp) If yours is a non-rope edge with no markings it is likely (but not necessarily) from the earlier periods - 1955-1957.
Once the stamping began dating depends on which colors were available when, and on subtle changes to the bases (glides, screws, colors etc). Luckily a lot of the chairs were also given the ink date stamp - which if not the actual date the shell was created, gives a cutoff (i.e. if the chair is stamped 1972 you can be assured production was before then)
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