[av_heading heading=’A tale of two Eames DCM chairs illustrated the mid-century market at LAMA ‘ tag=’h1′ style=” subheading_active=” show_icon=” icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ size=” av-desktop-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” subheading_size=” av-desktop-font-size=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” icon_size=” av-desktop-font-size-1=” av-medium-font-size-1=” av-small-font-size-1=” av-mini-font-size-1=” color=” custom_font=” subheading_color=” seperator_color=” icon_color=” margin=’,,35px,’ av-desktop-margin=” av-desktop-margin_sync=’true’ av-medium-margin=” av-medium-margin_sync=’true’ av-small-margin=’,,20px,’ av-mini-margin=” av-mini-margin_sync=’true’ headline_padding=” headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-desktop-headline_padding=” av-desktop-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-medium-headline_padding=” av-medium-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-small-headline_padding=” av-small-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-mini-headline_padding=” av-mini-headline_padding_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ av-desktop-padding=” av-medium-padding=” av-small-padding=” av-mini-padding=” icon_padding=’10’ av-desktop-icon_padding=” av-medium-icon_padding=” av-small-icon_padding=” av-mini-icon_padding=” link=” link_target=” title_attr=” id=” custom_class=” template_class=” av_uid=’av-lp6rhugr’ sc_version=’1.0′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]

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LOS ANGELES – In the mid-century market, the devil is in the details. It’s why two vintage examples of Charles and Ray Eames’ DCM chair carrying similar estimates at Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA) on November 15 could bring vastly different prices.

The DCM (Dining Chair on Metal) was one of four plywood chairs by the husband-and-wife design team released to the marketplace in 1946. In time, the DCM would become a standard fixture in the Herman Miller catalog, but only after 1949, when the manufacturing know-how and licenses were bought from its original maker, Evans Plywood Division. These early Evans chairs in rosewood ply and solid zinc-plated steel rods are super rare and distinctive for two specific construction details: construction, namely the metal feet, and the circular ends to the ribs that connect the seat and the backrest. To serious collectors, these are catnip. Estimated at $1,500-$2,500, the rosewood ply Eames DCM chair took $28,000 ($36,680 with buyer’s premium).

Under Herman Miller the DCM – which is still made today – has gone through a series of subtle changes that also help with determining a chair’s date. Outwardly similar, an ash plywood chair in the sale was probably from Miller’s second or third iteration, with its rubber feet and oval ends to the backrest connectors. Made a decade later than the Evans chair, it was estimated at $1,000-$1,500 but took a modest $350 ($458 with buyer’s premium).

The LAMA sale also included the return to auction of a chair created by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen for the Museum of Modern Art’s Organic Design in Home Furnishings contest in 1940. It was the event that announced the arrival of both designers, with their joint entries winning in both the chair design and the living room categories.

Not only did the winners have their work exhibited in New York from September 4-November 9, 1941, they were also awarded contracts for manufacture and distribution. As indicated by a manufacturer’s label to the underside, the Eames and Saarinen chair was made by the Gardner, Massachusetts firm Heywood-Wakefield, with the complex Honduran mahogany shell created by the Haskelite Corporation using an iron mold. However, although stocked by department stores from the day the exhibition opened, full-scale production of the chair never happened due to the U.S.’s impending involvement in the Second World War.

This chair, previously owned by Lilian Swann Saarinen, first wife of Eero Saarinen, was last sold in May 2003 at Wright in Chicago, when it realized $37,440. This time, estimated at $10,000-$15,000, it sold for $24,000 ($31,440 with buyer’s premium).

A set of four chairs in one of Jean Prouve’s best-known plywood designs, the Tout Bois, achieved $28,000 ($36,680 with buyer’s premium). The form was first made in metal in 1934, but Prouve adapted it many times throughout his career. During the Second World War, Prouve worked with the Vauconsant Company to produce the chair in wood due to the scarcity of metal. The earliest wartime examples, such as these, dating to circa 1941, feature a frame of solid oak with side tenons passing through the back frame. Bought by the consignor from New York dealership Sebastian + Barquet in 2010, they were estimated at $20,000-$30,000.

Works by the African American ceramicist Doyle Lane (1923–2002) proved particularly popular as well. Of the six pieces on offer, five sold above their estimates.

The best of these, sold at $20,000 each ($26,200 with buyer’s premium), were two of Lane’s trademark ‘weed pots’ — the delicately potted vases with tiny necks that could hold only a single sprig of flowers. One with a turquoise glaze, the other in a matte black, both dated from the 1960s, when Lane was working from a studio on the El Sereno district of Los Angeles and exhibiting his work at the Brockman Gallery in Leimert Park and the Ankrum Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard, two galleries known for their support of black artists.

Lane’s star has been rising of late. A weed pot with a blue drip glaze sold for $30,000 at LAMA’s equivalent sale in July – the same time that the David Kordansky Gallery was holding a show of 100 Lane ceramics in New York.
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Early Charles and Ray Eames DCM chair by Evans Plywood Division, which sold for $28,000 ($36,680 with buyer’s premium) at Los Angeles Modern Auction.
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Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen chair from the Museum of Modern Art Organic Design competition, which sold for $24,000 ($31,440 with buyer’s premium) at Los Angeles Modern Auction.
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Set of four Tout Bois chairs by Jean Prouve, which sold for $28,000 ($36,680 with buyer’s premium) at Los Angeles Modern Auction.
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Weed pot by Doyle Lane, which sold for $20,000 ($26,200 with buyer’s premium) at Los Angeles Modern Auction.
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Weed pot by Doyle Lane, which sold for $20,000 ($26,200 with buyer’s premium) at Los Angeles Modern Auction.
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