I believe....
I believe that Herman Miller discovered a better, longer lasting foam product in the 1970's or very early 1980's, and apparently, their foam filled furniture does not stiffen and turn to dust like the lousy latex foam did from the 1950's.

My late friend owned a, Alexander Girard lounge suite (arm-down sofa, three side tables and matching arm-down chair) which he bought off of the closing Braniff ticket office in Minneapolis back in the early 1970's.

All of the latex was hard as a rock and powder was sifting through the bottom of the marvelous Girard fabric.

Apparently, currently made Herman Miller foam filled chairs and sofa do not do this.....

I saw that we finished ...
I saw that we finished one this afternoon made in 1969 and the down was in great shape we re wrapped it like we do all of them and another one shipped out
The problem is as follows
with foam it does turn to crumble
90 percent of the time, the ones that do most often are fabric. cause fabric breathes and that is what deteriorates the foam,
2) the vinyl actually can protect some of the foams, It is the edges that get really bad but the centers seem to be o.k.
3) Judgeing from all the lounge chairs that have been at our shop , I think Miller changed the seating on the lounge chairs around 1980's and used poly foam wrap.

tiredbuthappy [edit] ...
tiredbuthappy
[edit]
Tell her to take that 6000 lounge chair
and cram it that is way to much money for a old chair that does not have that much value!!!!
I am the first to admit i do not know every thing but one thing i do know is the Eames lounge chair and if you want the down you can have that replaced
that is no big deal , they do come poly foam wrapped
but tell that person to take that 6000 chair and cramit

thanks everyone
I am in the UK and the auction was on ebay in the US, it was billed as 1970s chair and ottomon that has been kept by the owner as a piece of art so was effectively new. I had assumed from its age and the description 'its fibre filling is as plump as the day its was made' that it was down. If turned out to be foam.

Had it been down i would have paid , you only live once, and an old chair in as new condition would have outlived me. Being foam and at least 25 years old it would probably start to deteriorate from the moment I used it. Anyway seller has accepted it wasnt what i was after and i am off the hook.

I have an early rosewood shell at the moment but my leather is very worn so what i really need is some vintage but perfect cushions. so if you are throwing some out call me!

we recover a Herman Miller...
we recover a Herman Miller lounge chair at least 1 every 10 days mostly in black leather
and I hate to say it, it is really no big deal
If you want down fil you can get down
What we do for the price is new zippers, new leather, and we reuse the plastic backs,
but most of the time we use the original foam providing it has not mealed and a new poly wrap,
but a lot of time it must all be replaced,


This is not a solicitation or looking for business as we have plenty,

can anyone recommend a good book
pegboardmodern - can i have an email address?

Can anyone recommend a book that will help me date eames furniture by constuction detail and label style. I appreciate it if a full understanding comes from many books and personal research but can anyone recommend a good starting point.

I am now even more confused about my lounge chair and ottomon. I was assured my one was early so I was expecting down and when I peeked inside the ottoman sure enough there was down.

I have enquired about another one for sale and the seller says the labels inside the ottoman say 75% latex rubber, 25% grey duck down and feather. Inside the chair its 50% latex rubber. 50% grey duck and feather. If these are original when should they date from because the seller says its an early chair.Does foam/down mix come between down and foam? Or are all (later) foam ones topped with down?

On hearing that I stripped open the ottoman on mine and sure enough underneath the down was a thick pillow of foam. So if original is my chair not as old as I though too?

clips
so far i have checked the ottoman and the two back cushions, has trouble getting the seat cushion up and didnt want to force it.

all are the same two round discs with a protruding peg on which to hang the cushion and two round poppers. That doesnt sound like anything i have read here!

interesting that the change in seat attachment method is dated at both 1960 and 1971 within this thread , no wonder i am confused.

if anyone can tell me how to upload iamges from my Apple computer to help i will gladly learn

my chair was sold to me as early
yes, my cushions have a round popper top and bottom and at both sides a larger round disc with a kind of spike that locates in a hole with a metal eyelet on the cushion back, so each cushion has four points at which its fixed. The chair wood doesnt show any sighs of fixings having ever been in different places.

If this type of fixing is early then I am beginning to accept that my chair is early, I suspect my cushions are original , as they are disappointly worn on the chair, the ottoman is great.

I suspect however that the original down was replaced with the down and foam mix. This chair was supposed to have been strored since the early 1980s so could have been restuffed prior to that.

So my search for an entirely original early chair goes on- i must find one or at least one where I cant tell whats been replaced.

I can post images of the chair, its cushion fixings and its remaining labels at some point when i know how to do it

will post image but..
have a look at ebay 110191049101 . Mine lacks any round Hermam Miller label ( i am told they fall off). Both chair and ottoman have the same label as on ebay. If this is such an early label how come it says 50% foam- i thought it should be 100% down.
Mine has what I think is an early cushion attachment- two round discs with hooks and two round poppers.
The two back cushions are actually all natural - labels say 40% grey duck down, 60% grey duck feather. on the inside of the shell backs is stamped the number 124 and inside one of the back cushions on the material that's stuffed with the feather/down is written Herman Miller E124 Back Unit PO 7188 KL.

Haven't checked out seat and ottoman cushions except that ottoman does have a hunk of foam- probably 50% as per the chair and ottoman base labels.

So it all looks to be original to the chair shell but when can this date from and how come if its early has it got foam in it

from the 25 chairs that...
from the 25 chairs that have been HM that we have recovered most are from the 70's and 80's
the 90's chairs were no big deal and have the lowest resale today, and we have redone very few of them,
the 70's 80's have the highest resale
the mix poly started in the late 60's as i can honestly say none of the ones that have come in that are from that period have down in it, they all come in with a pancake look and they all need a new wrap to plump them up and after that they look great, We always use the old product and add new to it,
The early ones have beautiful rosewood, from the 60 to the the late 80 as you are aware,

Hate to disagree
but I think the early clips were not changed in the early 1960s, but rather 1971. If you look into buying new replacement cushions, you'll see that they make that distinction: http://highbrowfurniture.com/seating/products/67071/

We have had several Eames lounge chairs, and when unless they were altered at some point, when they had down cushions, they were all down-filled. Seat, back, ottoman. More often than not there have been no labels present, but all you have to do is pop one off and you can tell the difference. The down filled cushions weigh almost twice as much, the down settles so it has a different look with age, and if you are still in doubt, you can unzip the covers and peek inside.

look forward to hearing from your other source
Is the archivist a personal friend or can I bother him directly.

Just for clarification, did he say early 1960 or early 1960s. i would like to think I can date my chair to early 1960 - its almost the 50s!

I sure wish someone would have taken the endless opportunities provided by the chair, ottoman and cushion labels to fill in the date of delivery.

I'm constantly upgrading armrests on mine
and I'm wondering if it's a common occurence to have the backing split a bit at the clip.Both of my chairs have the front right clip lifting from the backing.

LRF-Any recommended fix?
Or just let it be?

No, the archivist just...
No, the archivist just responded by supplying me with the document I discussed earlier in this thread. The document (not the archivist) stated that the clips were changed in early 1960.(I know I said 1960s in a previous post, but it actually said 1960, singular). If you contact HM directly and ask to speak to their archives department, you should be able to pick their brains. I would rather not post an email address in this forum as they have not given me permission to do so.

The doc, as I stated earlier, makes no mention of switching from all down to a mix of down and foam, so I have no idea, based on this document, when this happened. I am awaiting another book that supposedly will clear this up.

Here is the info you'll need to contact the archives. I'd be interested in hearing what you find out.

"Where can I go to get my antique furniture authenticated to validate that it's really a Herman Miller product?

Herman Miller archives personnel can help identify Herman Miller furniture. Just send a snapshot or illustration of the product along with a letter of request to:

Herman Miller Archives, 855 E. Main Avenue, P.O. Box 302, Zeeland, MI 49464-0302.

Because of the vast number of products made in our history, which spans over 100 years, it is not possible to identify products through oral description. Please write to us with photos. Because of the number of such requests we receive, the answer to your request may take a few weeks' time. We appreciate your patience."

Hope this helps.

fm

Well, well, seek and ye...
Well, well, seek and ye shall find. I found a drawing done by Charles Kratka in 1958 showing an exploded view of the lounge/ottoman. Guess what the description for the seat cushions says?

"OTTOMAN & CHAIR SEAT CUSHIONS
Identically constructed and are interchangeable.
Fabric covering zippered to a vulcanized fibre back.
Filled with a feather and down envelope around a block of foam rubber."

BACK CUSHIONS
Identically constructed and interchangeable.
Fabric covering zippered to a vulcanized fibre-back.
Filled with a down and feather envelope.
Covered buttons

ARMS
12 guage formed steel plate.
Cushioned with foam rubber bonded to the plate.
Covered with fabric to match seat and back"

This was published in 1958. So it would appear that there has always been some kind of foam inside the seat and ottoman. Also, these chairs were available in naugahyde and cloth up until 1962.

Feel better now? :)

fm

Hi
Down and feathers.