real or fake Le Corbusier LC1 Sling Chair w/ pony hair  

It needs
To be signed and numbered, inscripted in the metal base

thanks
Hi, thanks for your reply. They have been signed and numbered since they were made, even in the early period of manufacturing? Thanks,

Cassina sign and number as...
Cassina sign and number as far as I know but there were other versions before them that did neither, knoll for example didnt.
I had an early Knoll one once and in my opinion yours is not an early knoll version.....It doesnt appear to be a cassina version if they are signed and numbered......so that will narrow your search. I cant help any more than that though.

I have a
LC4 from 1954 signed and dated so the early ones yes, nowadays yes, but in the transition period between Knoll and Cassina, not sure.... All I know is that the designs have been relatively well protected by the family?

The Corbu chair
In 1959, Le Corbusier gave an exclusive license to Heidi Weber of Zurich. Heidi Weber was the first person to put all four models into regular production. Le Corbusier instructed that each and every piece of his furniture be embossed with his signature and numbered. The Heidi Weber models were carefully produced and of extraordinary quality. However, they were very expensive. These are the models which are in the MOMA collection. However, in 1964, in order to make the models available to the general public Heidi Weber gave a sublicense to Cassina. Cassina was a producer of commercial furniture for hotels and steamships and Heidi Weber chose them in the hope that they would produce a relatively inexpensive edition in good quality. In the sublicense agreement Cassina was obliged to continue to emboss each piece with a reproduction of his signature and to number them consecutively. So if your piece is not signed and numbered, it is not by Cassina. Judging from the photographs, the quality is very low. Most of the copies of the Corbu furniture have been produced in Italy. Very often, apart from the signature, it difficult to distinguish the so-called copies from supposedly "original" Cassina versions. The chair in the photos shows details which are too primitive tohave produced by an Italian company. Furthermore, don't judge the age of a chair by its condition. The chairs produced by Heidi Weber in 1959 look newer than the Cassina chairs of the 1970's.