History Lesson: Emeco Navy Chair

Emeco Navy Chair

The Original 1006 Navy Chair

    During World War 2, the U.S. government gave Wilton Carlyle Dinges, the founder of Emeco (the Electrical Machine and Equipment Company) a difficult task: make a chair that can withstand water, salt air, and sailors. The U.S. government wanted the chair to be light-weight and strong, and they wanted it to last a lifetime. Dinges threw the chair out of a sixth-floor window during a furniture show in Chicago, and other than a few scratches, the chair was fine.

   The Emeco Navy 1006 ("ten oh six") Chair became popular among modernist designers and architects, and the design was copied world-wide.

Click here to view full history of the Emeco Navy Chair. 

Emeco works with Coca-Cola: 111 Chair AKA "Coke Chair

   Emeco still makes its classic chair, but now it uses recycled Coke bottles. Their mantra is to "make recycling obsolete" by making chairs that last for forever. If their Coke chairs are anything like their old chairs (which are made to last 150 years), they may just achieve their goal.

Learn how the 111 chair is made.

 Designers love both the 111 chair and the 1006 chair, check out how designers have used the chairs in various spaces: 

The Emeco chair combined with the use of the Eames® Molded Plastic Dowel-Leg Side Chair

A white Emeco Chair with the Tulip Table (a previous history lesson)

 

I love the rustic spin on these, the black matte finish really compliments the space.