Eames Elephant by Vitra
Design by Charles and Ray Eames
In the 1940s, Charles and Ray Eames spent several years developing and refining a technique for the three-dimensional moulding of plywood, creating a series of furniture items and sculptures in the process. Among these initial designs, the two-part elephant proved to be the most technically challenging due to its tight compound curves, and the piece never went into serial production. A prototype was given to Charles’s 14-year-old daughter Lucia Eames and later borrowed for the exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1946. It still survives in the Eames family archives today.
After a limited edition in 2007, Vitra has now added a plywood version of the legendary Eames Elephant to its standard portfolio. The sculptural figure with a high-quality face veneer in American cherry went into serial production for the very first time in 2017. Several years ago, the Eames Elephant was also launched in plastic, making it available to the target group for which it was originally intended: children. And Eames Elephant (small) also comes in plastic in a choice of colours: the design is identical but on a smaller scale.
Material: dyed-through polyproylene, matt finish
Dimensions: Width 350mm, Length 785mm, Height 415mm
Colours: White, Deep Black, Ice Gray, Buttercup, Palm Green, Pale Rose, Poppy Red
