I was lucky enough to find two upholstered Herman Miller arm shell chairs at a yard sale this morning for $10 each. One has a swivel base, parchment (I think) shell and black original fabric. Markings include original tag dated 1969 as well as Herman Miller and Cincinatti manufacture markings. It is super clean outside of there being a little pilling of the fabric. My kids have fallen in love with this one and I think we are going to keep it because we also have room for it in the house. The other is a black shell with black fabric, and has a task-chair swivel base. The markings include original tag (date cannot be seen), Herman Miller and circle S, Summit manufacture marking. There are a few scratches in the fiberglass not much, and also some rubs on the trim likely from being bumped into a desk. Two questions, any clue about the age of the black shell? I'm guessing 60s, but cannot be more specific. Also, any guess about the value of the black chair? I have done a little looking on ebay and think it could be worth as much as $300, maybe less, maybe more. Should I mess with trying to fix the scratches, or not? Is there more value for certain bases? The task chair base does not seem to be very popular. I want to be wise when trying to sell it at the local vintage consignment store or ebay. Besides being a great find, this was a great learning experience, I know way more about shell chairs than I did before. Oh it was so fun to find these gems just sitting overlooked in a neighborhood sale that hit to look for kid stuff.
Photo?
Can you post a photo of the chair? Does it have shock mounts? Is it the four-star base with casters or some other type?
Generally speaking, the upholstered arm shells have not been selling for that much on eBay lately unless they are really clean and in a desirable color. I would estimate more in the neighborhood of $200 without having seen it.
Photos of the chairs
Here are some photos of the chairs. The photos don't show the upholstery very well, but it is in very good condition. the black is rare, so I was hoping it might fetch a bit more.
Thank you for your help! $200 is still great, at least I can justify to my husband why I am cluttering up our newly cleaned garage for a short while.
Date stamp?
Is there a date stamp on the upholstery tag? Looks like there might be? Yes, non-upholstered black shells are fairly rare and thus more valuable. Since yours is padded, the foam is probably glued onto the shell. It is still in nice shape though and should fetch around 200. You could try to fill in some of the scratches with plastic polish, if you really wanted.
I cannot read the tag
The date on the upholstery tag is faded and illegible.
Upon more thinking, I was thinking about stripping the fabric off one or both of the shells. I would like a white shell more than an upholstered black one, and would rather not shell out $ for reupholstery.
Are there holes in the fiberglass seat of the upholstered chairs? Some references seem to say yes. I can't seem to understand why. I have found via a boat restoration site a product for removing glue from fiberglass and thought this might be an option. The product is called foam-off, from http://www.napierenvironmental.com.
I like DIY restoration stuff, thought this could be fun. anyone else have experience with this?
The drilled holes are how Herman Miller injected the foam
during this period of production. The Eames Office refers to it as "foam-in-place" padding and was used on upholstered chairs circa 1971. You can read all about it here:
http://www.eamesoffice.com/vintage/worksheet_detail.php?id=40
Thank you, thank you
I have learned even more about the history of the HM shell and its production. I am also seriously entertaining stripping the fabric and refinishing at least one of the chairs to just a plastic shell. If and when I get around to that I will surely post a report and pics.
If the foam is glued down,
It will be an unpleasant task. It can be done, but you may be better off selling these and putting the funds toward an original non-upholstered shell.
There was a thread on here with pics of someone who stripped a foamed chair.
chairfag.com also has a good tutorial for restoring worn fiberglass.
Good luck, whatever you decide!
Dating shell chairs
While we're at it, I just received a few vintage side shell chairs (w/ orig. eiffel bases) through the mail, and they all appear to have patent labels, round aluminum stickers with HM logo and text 'Zeeland Mich' + some digits stamped underneath the seat - I was wondering if it's possible to determine the production year of these chairs accurately, based on these markings?
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