attack of the mismatched base  

Wouldn't be the first time!
...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Pair-Brown-Eames-Fonda-Chairs-Herman-Miller-/1704945...

Just sold.
...
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250645691694&ssPageNa...

For some reason I find the ei...
For some reason I find the eiffel particularly disturbing. The dowel is pretty awful too.

That piece sold for $560? Gee...
That piece sold for $560? Geez.

Yeah, crazy
I didn't understand it either.

Modernesia
Regretfully I admit I've sold a couple of nice pieces to this seller. Had I only known...
Linked below is a listing of their's for a 1st gen Zenith armshell mounted on a later eiffel base. Obviously a marriage. Completely original according to the listing however, sold for $1100. But hey, ignorance is bliss right?
This seller must be a master of shill bidding as well because they manage to sell Zenith rockers for $2000+ every month it seems.
Well done, Modernesia.
http://cgi.ebay.com/EAMES-HERMAN-MILLER-ZENITH-SHELL-DAR-EIFFEL-CHAIR-19...

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I think they both look pretty good, especially the dowel base, nice and fat and to use a bad musical comparison sort of tub thumping, like a big set of headphones or something, am I making any sense at all?

No
No, you're not.

Heath
Apparently, you're not the only one who thought it looked good.
La Fonda chairs usually don't sell for anything even close to that much on eBay.

Perhaps I'm wrong
but I believe that any of the shells were available at the time with any of the available bases. I got my LaFonda shell with a standard 4 leg base and switched it for a LaFonda base.

I'm sure
You probably could have gotten any base from Herman Miller with a custom order or something.... I doubt that the La Fonda chair would have been listed this way in a catalog or sales material.

I think
it was.
Once Herman Miller produced the LaFonda chair, it became available in all of the standard base options that the fiberglass shell and upholstered EC-127 chair was.
Herman Miller and Charles Eames may have intended a specific shell to go with a specific base, but they also realized that the mixing and matching was a standard practice, as well as good business, depending on the installation needs.
Pragmatic, weren't they?

How on earth could a la...
How on earth could a la fonda use an ec-127 base? don't think so!

silly mismatchers
did people see the vinyl tourquois eames wire shell with a dowel base about a month ago on ebay......i liked it too much even though it was, for lack of better cliches, "faking the funk" with that repro base:)
yes yes, I bid on it. oops.