OMG! Real Purple Fiberglass Eames Armshells on Ebay!  

I can only dream,
as I can already presume bidding will go way beyond my means. But nice to see nonetheless.
See earlier thread here:
http://www.designaddict.com/design_addict/forums/index.cfm/fuseaction/th...

iffy.
condition looks pretty iffy on those..... especially f its all about the color and there are blotches of color irregularities on the shells.
these should NOT command a premium in my opinion unless they are pristine which they are not.

Well
First time I have seen these... This color may be more rare than pink.
Up to $610 already....

Yes but...
did anyone happen to notice THEY'RE PURPLE?!? Is this one of "those cases" where rarity trumps the fact THEY'RE UGLY?!?!
Sad.
Did you see that Herman Miller is now offering these neat chairs in all sorts of DAYGLO colors? They've even made them more "green" by making them out of PLASTIC and they're WAYYY more "reliable" now because they don't have those pesky shock mount thing-a-ma-giggees.
And they come in pairs ALL DAY!!

Obviously...
They may not work in every interior decor color scheme (if one cares about that sort of thing), but it is a nice shade of purple, in my opinion.
It's not like Barney purple or something...

OMG...
can you IMAGINE them paired with these?!?!:
PAISLEY PARK HERE WE COME!!!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ARCHITECTURAL-POTTERY-GAINEY-CERAMICS-PAIR-MEMPHIS-R...

The current Herman...
The current Herman Miller/Vitra collaboration shell chairs are far more hideous in any color. They look like barber shop chairs.

These purple are not ugly
and I agree that the current variety are nowhere as nice as the original fiberglass, but now that I have side chair in light blue (a Vitra one), I quite like it.

So you don't like purple....
We get it. I don't have anything purple in my house either, but I would not mind having one of these shells. I am collecting every color that exists, but these are already out of my current price range.

The PURPLE THING...
is only PART of my point. I guess I am beginning to struggle with "collecting".
*DISCLAIMER*- this is merely my own opinion and I am not trying to say ANYTHING about ANYONE...that being said...
I'm starting to get a little weird-ed out by the concept of collecting where the desire to HAVE ALL OF or have THE MOST OF trumps the subtlety of good taste. These purple shells are indicative of that concept...TO ME.
And, DON'T GET ME WRONG, I LOVE a good GRAPE SODA every now and then.

It's so funny
that people say
"it's ugly"
"the people who like it was stupid"
and other comments and then when someone disagrees either the opinion or the way it's stated, the person who said said 'I was kidding and why don't you see it??'
The rare purple and pink fiberglass are not my first choice colors, but there's no denying that Charles and Ray Eames did not produce any colors that were "ugly" and they were not "stupid"!
I'm just joking here, or maybe I'm not.
Good luck to whomever wins these rare shells.
And thanks for pointing them out....we are a forum of information and discovery, as well as opinions, dude.

Collecting
Certainly people collect different things for different reasons. When it comes to these fiberglass shells, aside from the early rope edge arm shells, the only real significant variety lies in the color (excluding upholstered versions). The shell was a mass-produced item, so it in itself is not a rarity. But many of the contract colors are hard to come by. Thus, that is the basis for (my) wanting to collect all the colors. Call me stupid, but I think it will be cool to have a stack of 30 different colored shells.

Sounds good to me, Woody
Although my main focus has been George Nelson and his associates' designs, I can't think of any Eames design that I thought was ugly. There were some popular colors that the Eameses used for their fiberglass chairs that I'm not passionate about.
In the 1952 catalog, the following colors were available:
elephant hide grey
beige
parchement
lemon yellow
seafoam green
bright red
also; 'applied finishes':
dark blue
mustard
light grey
In the 1955/1956 catalog, the following colors were available:
elephant hide grey
seafoam green
parchement
greige
red
yellow
-----
I don't actually know when the puple and pink were produced...interested that jet black is not listed in the above color groupings.
Does anybody know the definitive list of available colors for the fiberglass shells and when they went in and out of basic Zenith/HM production?

1962
The 1962 catalog sheet lists 27 colors -- 11 standard and 16 contract.
Purple and true red are not on there. Black is a contract color.