smow Blog Design Calender: May 17th 1955 - Charles Eames Granted US Patent 2,708,476 for Furniture Frame Construction
...Saarinen and Eames (with Kaiser's hand) were awarded first prize in the category "Seating for a living room" with a collection which in addition to the "Conversation" armchair and "Relaxation" lounge chair which later became the Vitra Organic and Organic Highback chairs respectively, also featured a sectional sofa concept that has largely vanished, and a side chair... Formally launched in January 1952 at the winter furniture fairs in Chicago and Grand Rapids20 the new Eames Upholstered Wire Chairs made their public debut in the same month in context of a presentation at Macy's in New York, a presentation which not only underscores the important, central, role large department stores played in the dissemination of contemporary furnishing ideas in post-War America, but a presentation which in addition to the wire side chair shells also featured a long since lost wire lounge chair21, a work of which we can find no photographs of in-situ in Macy's; but, if its the same as the experimental model wire lounge chair depicted in the Vitra Design Museum's Eames Furniture Source Book22, it would represent a further development of the 1940 plywood Relaxation chair...
