Original upholstery, this sofa is unmarked, but from the estate of Herman Miller designer Royce Engel.Provenance: The Estate of Royce G. Engel (1930-2023)The Eames Sofa Compact (designed by Charles and Ray Eames) is a sleek, elegant, slender, strong, steel-based minimalist piece of classic mid-century furniture. It was scaled to fit into spall spaces (where a traditional full-scale sofa would either not fit and/or ruin the scale of a room)—yet it seats three people comfortably and measures six feet across. First created in the 1940s as a built-in sofa, by 1954 it was transformed into a free-standing version of itself and has been in continuous production ever since. We believe this specimen served as a production piece--the final production piece as something that came together after many previous versions of it were tested for their seats, backs and weight capacities. Royce G. Engel worked as an innovative mechanical engineer over the course of his long career that was spent mostly at General Motors, McDonnell Douglas and Engel Systems (that he founded in 1976). In the midst of those years dedicated to a wide variety of engineering projects, from 1959 to 1962 he worked as the Director of Technical Research at Herman Miller, an office furniture and residential furniture manufacturer based in Zeeland, Michigan. Engel holds patents as co-inventor for two highly successful furniture product innovations assigned to Herman Miller: the Herman Miller Furniture Comprehensive Storage System Bracket and the the Herman Miller Furniture Dress Strip. In his innovative and influential position as Technical Center Director, Engel stood at the nexus of Herman Miller furniture prototypes, designs and collections. tested for their seats, backs and weight capacities. Length: 70 inches; Height of Back: 34 inches; Seat Height: 17 inches; Depth: 25 inches