Ok everyone. This shell chair base is throwing me a curve ball. I have never seen a aluminum group base like this. The spider mount underneath the chair is identical and the 4 star base and rubber feet are the same. It's the chrome on the shaft that's I have never seen. Is this a executive base or something that a employee made or commissioned working at Herman miller? It pivots not at the bottom of the spider mount but in between the 2 chrome peices
Its almost like a 670 lounge chair base. So maybe a employee had it made like some did?
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I have a chair with this same black painted contract base, and chromed central swivel column. I looked for it on Eamesdesigns website but couldn't find this exact version either.
Mine has a leather/naugahyde covered side shell seat that looks early 60s.
Closest I could date with this base was around mid to late fifties or early sixties.
It is not the smoothest swivel in the world, I must say. Maybe that is why there are not many of them? Perhaps a design set aside quickly after a not so successful test run or short production run?
I see yours now has a wire seat on it. If you think it is an original pairing, perhaps the wire seat or seat cover could give you some dating clues.
I don't believe they are a or...
I don't believe they are a original paring as the bolts used to hold the two together are hex bolts. The seat pad is just a normal cushion and not something specific to the wire side shell chair and the chair it self I don't know its authenticity. The shape looks right. Has 10 vertical wires and 25 horizontal wires and I didnt see any weld reinforce at the bend.
You are right about not being smooth. Its it gets caught every few degrees of turning and has a slight wobble like a plastic bushing is worn out.
hmmm
The padded fiberglass shell on mine seems correct enough with this base. It is probably a parchment shell, but smooth with very little fiber showing, and I think it has only the embossed "H" with no other markings. A secretary type chair.
That is the same base as mine for sure, and I know the black painted sides of the contract base make it an older one.
I will try and take a photo of mine at some point, but it might not be for a a while as I am working long hours at a benefit, and I am a total wreck when I get home!
Interesting that yours is rough to swivel also. At this point I am guessing that it was just an unsuccessful design, and they quickly found a better mechanism.
Perhaps someone else will have seen one of these.
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