Bye Bye Thonet, Hello Eames

Saturday 27 March 2010

My model Charlie and I would like to say bye bye in style to my trusted Thonet dining chairs.

They were picked up a few weeks ago by a very nice gentleman, who won them on ebay with a bid of EUR 200. Yes ! I love you ebay.


No need to look to sad, Charlie. Not only did we get a fantastic price for them, but look at the replacements...


Aaah, pure sexiness ! Eames side chairs with dowel base in walnut. These puppies have original Herman Miller fiberglass shells in sea foam green and sea foam green light.

They were EUR 285 a pop.

Now I can hear everybody in North America sreaming about this outrageous price. Over there, the original fiberglass chairs are still readily and cheaply available. But on this side of the world... whole different story ! These were the first I ever spotted on ebay in the 5 years I have roamed there. And I knew they would be mine.


Now what's this you're asking ? Yes, this is Charlie modeling yet another Eames.

Again, original Herman Miller fiberglass shell with - as luck would have it - walnut dowel base.

Apparently Belgians aren't very keen on red and I won these puppies for EUR 133 each. Yep, the guy was selling four of these. So for the price of the two green, I also got four red.


Now they come with some thrifty issues - the usual wear and tear and unfortunate screws used for the bases. But mainly an unscrupulous previous owner drilled right through the seats to mount the bases.

But for this price, I don't care. Call them mine !


Charlie agrees.

And anyway they came with these lovely Vitra cushions. So mess well hidden plus additional comfort - I could not be happier !

3 comments:

  1. Peux-tu croire que j'ai trouvé sur l'équivalent de Craiglist ici, des chaises (mais sans les pattes) Eames noires à 15$(11 euro) chacunes! Et il en avait au moins 6! Le seul hic c'est qu'il reste trop loin (environ 1 heure de route) et que j'ai pas d'auto...je devrais en louer une!

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  2. Ah non, ne remue pas le couteau dans la plaie !!!
    Bon au moins pour mes 1000 euros, les chaises sont arrivées soit gratuitement par la poste, soit m'ont été livrées gracieusement par le vendeur.
    Mais j'en reviens toujours pas de la différence de prix entre les USA/Canada et l'Europe. Ici quand on en trove en seconde main, 9.9 fois sur 10 ce sont des reproductions Vitra, super moches en plus, et qui coûtent quasi aussi chers que les neuves...
    Sinon, j'ai hâte de voir les tiennes ! En noir, c'est super chic !

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  3. if you ever sell them, give me a shout :-)

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