VITRA EAMES EA217 SOFTPAD UNiQUE GREEN LEATHER CAPTAINS OFFICE CHAIR

American chess grand master Bobby Fischer pronounced the Eames Executive chair to be so comfortable that he insisted it was the only chair he could concentrate on during his world championship match against Boris Spassky in Iceland in 1972. In the end, both Spassky and Fischer were seated on the lightweight aluminum and leather chairs that have been seen in offices around the world since the piece's debut in 1960.

Modern American design luminaries Charles and Ray Eames (1907–78; 1912–88) initially came up with the concept for the Executive chair at the request of Time Inc. founder Henry Luce for the lobbies of the Time Life Building in Manhattan. Luce had asked the Eameses to design several of the property’s lobbies as a return favor for their use of the Time/Life photo library, to which they had been granted access for their film Glimpses of the U.S.A., first shown at the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959.

Conceived to be smaller than the now-famous Eames lounge chair, the Executive chair was versatile enough to be used as a conference-room chair while still extremely comfortable. Since then, the Eames Executive chair, which features three individual upholstered cushions, has become so synonymous with chic mid-century modernism that examples of it were used around the conference table on the set of the TV series Mad Men.

Charles and Ray Eames first met at Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where Ray was taking classes after studying painting with Hans Hofmann in New York. Charles had already established his own architecture practice in St. Louis, when he received a fellowship to Cranbrook and later headed its industrial design department.

After marrying in 1941, the newlyweds moved to Los Angeles, where they established the Eames Office and eventually built their lifelong residence, the Eames House in Pacific Palisades as part of the Case Study House Program.

Perhaps best known for their visionary work with molded plywood, the Eameses’ furniture designs, toys, graphic and textile designs, films and architecture truly transformed American interior design and furniture like almost no other designer of the 20th century. Many museums throughout the United States, such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, hold examples of the Eames Executive chair in their permanent collections.

Herman Miller, the core business of which was office furnishings by the 1960s, continues to produce the Eames Executive chair. In Europe, the alluring leather swivel chair is manufactured by Vitra as the Eames Lobby chair.

Design house Vitra has garnered international recognition for more than 70 years — the Swiss family-owned furniture company has outfitted public spaces as well as residential properties and offices worldwide. It has been a proponent of modernist design since the 1950s. While the brand is heralded for its collaborations with mid-century modern icons such as Verner Panton, Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard and others, Vitra’s German campus is also home to buildings designed by legendary architects Zaha Hadid and Frank Gehry. Among them is the Vitra Design Museum, an independent cultural institution that displays two centuries of design today.

Vitra was established in Weil Am Rhein, Germany, in 1950 by husband and wife team Willi and Erika Fehlbaum. On a trip to New York several years later, Willi Fehlbaum encountered the work of design polymaths Ray and Charles Eames in a furniture store and immediately knew that he had found his bliss.

In 1957, Vitra entered into a licensing agreement with Herman Miller, which saw the company producing designs by George Nelson, the Eameses and others. Later, Vitra partnered with Verner Panton and created the Panton chair, which was the first chair ever crafted from a single piece of molded plastic (it was also the first piece to be independently developed by Vitra). After 27 years of establishing the Vitra brand, the Fehlbaums passed control to their two sons, Rolf and Raymond Fehlbaum.

When a fire destroyed the factory in 1981, the brothers developed the Vitra Factory Campus, subsequently taking the opportunity to redirect the architectural landscape of the company. They created a masterplan with Nicholas Grimshaw, and together they erected four buildings in just a few short years.

In 1988, with the passing of Ray Eames and the disbandment of the Los Angeles Eames office, Rolf and Raymond acquired the furniture design portion of her estate, including the Eames prototypes and experimental models, housed today in the Vitra Design Museum.

Rolf and Roy opened the Vitra Design Museum in 1989. This began a period rich with design relationships, including collaborations with Antonio Citterio, Jasper Morrison, Maarten van Severen, Philippe Starck, Alberto Meda and others.

In 2012, leadership passed to Nora, the third generation of the Fehlbaums. Nora Fehlbaum has, like her grandparents, expanded the company and brought it into the 21st century with the acquisition of Finnish furniture manufacturer Artek. Nora has turned the company’s focus to sustainability yet still maintains its international and cultural relevance legacy.

Find a collection of Vitra lounge chairs, tables, side chairs, sofas and other furniture on 1stDibs.