How to buy a vintage Egg Chair?  

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For anybody in the same situation: Here's a helpful article and video, explaining "how to tell it's not a fake":

http://blog.danishdesignstore.com/2011/07/authentic-egg-chair-how-to-tel...

Can anybody comment on the price range for a leather Egg Chair with Ottoman? I see a lot of offers, but I don't know for how much they actually sell.

Put in weeks of research about the chair, vintage leather, foam, stitching, characteristics of production, etc, then spend a few years of dedication searching, and you may find one for cheap. Otherwise prepare to spend, but I still recommend putting in the research so you can know which chairs are a better value for the money and which are polished jalopies.

We don

Thanks for your comment.

I see your point not talking about prices. I don't expect to find one for cheap (that's probably impossible anyhow). I just want to avoid being tricked and loosing lots of money in case I'd have to resell the chair one day. (I don't own my space, so I might have to move to a smaller flat some day.)

I did lots of research already. The main problem here is that most of it is online and it's just not possible to see most of the offers in real life. It's really difficult to judge the quality of leather, stitching and everything else just from looking at pictures or videos.

And what do do if I find a seemingly interesting offer after two days instead of two years? Would I just skip it to gather more experience? It's not that easy, but I guess a lot of you pros here have been through that...

You might well come across a good buy before you feel secure enough in your knowledge to pounce on it. That's life.

You can learn to recognize good quality stitching from bad (and other characteristics) in photos, but it means looking at a LOT of photos, comparing the real thing to photos of known fakes, and asking questions. Basic knowledge about upholstery in general will help, and that's something you can pick up by studying furniture that you do have access to--in furniture stores, in friends' and family's homes, etc. Buy a yard each of Hallingdal and Tonus fabric, two of the most popular fabrics used on Egg chairs, and study the colorways on Maharam.com so that you can recognize original fabrics on Egg chairs. (1stDibs is not a good place to research prices but it's great for clear detail photos of furniture, including fabric, and for views that you won't see on a lot of other sites.)

Study the angles of the curves by comparing photos of a real Egg and a fake taken at the exact same camera angle (compare how much of the base you can see, how much of the seat cushion, etc.) This means hunting through lots of photos but it's the best way I know of to spot differences when you can see them in person.

There are tons of Egg chair fakes out there and yeah, they do look exactly like the real thing to the untrained eye. But once you know what you're looking for, the differences will be obvious.

To be able to turn around and get your investment out of the chair means your need to buy it from a venue that YOU can sell it in, because the venue affects the price. You can sell it directly to another individual or you could send it to auction, or you could sell it to a retailer. Research those prices.

This will probably cut down the number of sellers you are willing to buy from dramatically.

There is nothing you can do about the possibility of missing an opportunity because you would not recognize it. You have missed millions of such opportunities already. Carpe diem. Fill your head with knowledge.

I would strongly recommend you learn about the kind of leather that was originally on the Egg and how to spot which chairs have it on them, either as original or reupholstered properly. Most I suspect have the wrong leather.

This one has original leather, just for the sake of comparison: https://www.incollect.com/listings/furniture/seating/arne-jacobsen-first...

The egg chair looks spectacular in that patina'd leather. I have never seen a leather Womb Chair ( I don't think)....but I probably have. And for tender old me 5"10"....151 lbs,....the cloth Womb is far more comfortable. My sister has a pair of eggs...so I've perched in /on both. No comparison.

Carry on,

Aunt Mark

There are some dealers in Berlin who are specialized in These things. You could go there and talk to them.

Thanks for all the helpful replies!

@Herringbone: Do you have any special recommendations for Berlin?

Try

Thanks! Awesome, that's even in walking distance. 🙂

Cool. They are nice guys and they know their job but I haven

The other thing you can do is to learn about all the other great mid-century modern lounge chairs out there, including many that aren't iconic designs that everyone knows. You may actually find some that you end up liking even more than the Egg chair. There are lots of very affordable chairs that are well made, beautiful and comfortable in their own right.

When I first got into mid-century design, all I knew were the really famous pieces that you see everywhere--the Egg, the Swan, the Papa Bear, Wishbone & Eames dining chairs, the LCW, etc. Then I started reading here and 15+ years later I am stlll discovering pieces i never knew existed, and I own a bunch of them. The really famous designs are so well known that almost all dealers and casual sellers recognize them and price accordingly. But it's still possible to score less famous pieces for decent prices, sometimes spectacularly low prices.