(5) Herman Miller Molded Plastic and Felt Eames Side Chairs. Sleek one-piece design with four chrome-plated steel legs, white plastic backing and red felt cushioning. Marked on undersides. 

Condition: Commensurate with use. 

Size: 19 x 24 1/2 x 31 1/4 in. 

In 1905 designer Dirk Jan De Pree began working at the Star Furniture Co. in his hometown of Zeeland, Michigan. Initially the company produced furniture, especially bedroom suites, in historic revival styles. In 1919 it was renamed the Michigan Star Furniture Company when De Pree took over as president. De Pree and his father-in-law, Herman Miller, purchased a majority share of company stock in 1923 and renamed it the Herman Miller Furniture Company. At the beginning of the Great Depression the company faced bankruptcy until De Pree met Gilbert Rohde, an up-and-coming modernist designer. Rohde convinced De Pree that the furniture industry’s focus on historical reproduction furniture in lieu of new designs was not only out of touch with the consumer, but fundamentally dishonest in the practices used to make furniture appear older and of higher quality than they were. In 1933 Herman Miller debuted a line of modern furniture at the Century of Progress exposition in Chicago, Illinois, which caught the attention of stores and designers around the country. In 1941 the company opened two showrooms, one in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago, and another in New York City. Under Rohde’s supervision, Herman Miller entered the contract office furniture market the following year with the introduction of the revolutionary “Modular Executive Office” Group (EOG). When Rohde died in 1944 the architect George Nelson joined the firm as director of design. Over the next four decades, Nelson influenced Herman Miller through both his personal designs and the designers that he recruited, including Isamu Noguchi, Charles and Ray Eames, Charles Pollock, and textile designer Alexander Girard. From the late 1940s through the early 1960s, Herman Miller produced some of the most recognizable pieces of furniture of the era, including the Noguchi table, Eames Lounge Chair, Marshmallow sofa, Ball clock (made by a division called the Howard Miller Clock Company), and the Sling sofa. The company reformed as Herman Miller, Inc. in 1960, with De Pree stepping down as CEO the next year due to illness. He was succeeded by his son, Hugh De Pree, who was CEO until the mid-1980s. He established the Herman Miller Research Division, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1961, which created the “Action Office” line of products, including the introduction of the office cubicle. Nelson’s influence waned in the 1970s as new designers like Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf began to assert their concepts. Hugh De Pree was succeeded by his brother Max De Pree, who held the position of CEO until 1990. For twenty years the company remained one of the most desirable designers of office products, despite a shift away from individual inspiration towards a more homogenized, mass produced aesthetic. In 2010 the firm acquired Colebrook Bosson Saunders, a designer and manufacturer of ergonomic furniture, but the next decade saw many ups and downs in the wake of the global economic collapse. The acquisition of rival company Knoll by Herman Miller was announced in  2021, with the merged firms rebranded as MillerKnoll.

Commensurate with use.