Estate Find

Mid Century Modern

Herman Miller

1953

DKW-2 Side Chair (B)

Ray and Charles Eames, Designers

We offer a Herman Miller DKW-2 Side Chair designed in 1951 by Ray and Charles Eames.

A DKW-2 chair is a dining height, k-wire chair on a wooden base with the cut-out “bikini” cover which exposes the wire mesh construction. In non-technical terms this is referred to as a bikini wire side chair.

The chair has a black powder coated finish on the steel wire structure and the wooden legs have a natural maple varnished finish. Each leg has an original round clear plastic pad now yellowed with age. The seat covers are threaded with a black wire with curved ends that hook onto the wire frame. The seat pads are covered with a striped velvet in tones of blue, green and aqua. The seat cover retains the original Herman Miller upholstery contents sewn on tag which lists the brown woven lining fabric as “Oily Cattle Body Hair”. The tag is date stamped Oct 1953.

The chair measures 32" in height. The seat is 19" in width and 16" in depth.  The seat measures 18" in height. The span of the feet is 16". The overall depth of the chair measures 21”.

The chair is seventy years old and should be considered a piece of historical design sculpture by Ray and Charles Eames. The black powder coated wire frame shows no rusticating. The wood dowel legs show no cracks. The feet pads are yellowed but intact. The seat and back pads show stains and minor wear. The dining height wire frame chair on a wood base with cut out seat and back covers is presented in original unrestored vintage condition.

A companion chair with matching pad covers is offered on another listing and a pivoting wire chair with the wooden base is offered on a third listing.