670 / 671
Charles & Ray Eames · 670 / 671
The Eames
Lounge Chair,
explained.
Herman Miller has made the 670 lounge chair and 671 ottoman without a break since 1956. It still looks like the chair it always was, but the plywood, the screws, the cushion fittings and the wood itself have all changed along the way. This guide shows you what changed, when, and how to tell one chair from another.
Start with Generation 1The study · 01–05
One design.
Five generations.
Collectors sort the chair into five rough periods. Each one is marked by a handful of small changes: how thick the plywood shells are, how many screws hold the arms on, what the cushions clip onto, how the ottoman's feet attach. Find two or three of them on a chair and you can usually place it within a few years.
01Circa 1956–1960
Generation 1
The first four years. Each shell is five thin layers of plywood faced in Brazilian rosewood, three screws hold each armrest in place, and the ottoman's feet push into the base rather than screwing in. Fewer of these were made than anything that came after.
Explore Generation 1
02Circa 1960–1971
Generation 2
Herman Miller simplifies the build. The armrests now take two screws instead of three, and the ottoman's feet screw in properly rather than pushing on. The small hooks that hold the cushions to the shell are still bare metal.
Explore Generation 2
03Circa 1971–1974
Generation 3
The last chairs built with five-layer shells, and the first with black plastic cushion clips. The spacers that sit between the headrest and the backrest change from metal to plastic at the same time.
Explore Generation 3
04Circa 1974–early 1990s
Generation 4
The shells get thicker. Five layers of plywood become seven, and they have stayed that way ever since. Rosewood veneer and the cushion hardware introduced in the early seventies both continue unchanged.
Explore Generation 4
05Early 1990s–present
Generation 5
Brazilian rosewood comes to an end. Trade restrictions stop its use in the early nineties, cherry and walnut take over by 1993, and the choice of woods and leathers has been widening ever since. This is the chair still being made today.
Explore Generation 5
HOW TO READ A CHAIR
No single detail dates a chair.
These chairs get repaired. Cushions are replaced, shells are refinished, bases are swapped between chairs. So any single detail can mislead you. Look at two or three together and the picture usually holds.
Start with the identification guide01 Shell construction
Count the plies
Look at the exposed edge of the plywood where the veneer wraps around. Five thin layers means the chair was built before the mid-seventies. Seven means after.
02 Cushions & hardware
Look behind the cushions
The hooks and clips holding the cushions onto the shells changed more often than anything else on the chair. Because they are hidden, they often survive when everything visible has already been redone.
03 Mounts & supports
Check the screws, spacers and glides
Count the screws holding the armrest on. Look at whether the spacers between the headrest and the backrest are metal or plastic. Check whether the ottoman's feet push into the base or screw into it.
04 Labels & evidence
Read the label, then check it against the chair
A Herman Miller label gives you a date range, but it only dates the part it is stuck to. A chair with a replaced shell will carry a label that does not match the rest of it.
Inside each generation
Construction & hardware · Veneers & finishes · Upholstery & cushions · Factory variations · Dates & labels · Repairs & replacements
WHERE IT CAME FROM
The one chair they
made for comfort.
Charles and Ray Eames spent the decade before 1956 trying to make good furniture cheap enough for ordinary people to own. The lounge chair was the exception. It was expensive, heavy and upholstered, and it was built for one person to sink into. Charles said he wanted it to have the warm, receptive look of a well-used first baseman's mitt.
Start with Generation 1- 01
Seventy years, no break
It has been made continuously since 1956, by Herman Miller in the United States and later by Vitra in Europe. Very few chairs designed in the fifties are still being built to the original design today.
- 02
A deliberate exception
Almost everything else the Eameses designed was meant to be affordable. This one never was, and it still isn't.
- 03
Copied everywhere
The shape is imitated constantly, and from across a room the copies are convincing. The details are what separate a real one from the rest, which is what the rest of this site is for.
About Eames Explained
For anyone who owns one, wants one, or just likes looking at them.
This site documents how the 670 and 671 were actually built, and how that changed between 1956 and now. It doesn't sell chairs and it won't tell you what yours is worth. Where the record is clear it says so plainly, where sources disagree it says that too, and corrections are always welcome.
An independent educational project. Not affiliated with, endorsed by or associated with the Eames Office, Herman Miller or Vitra.