Ever "found" valuable vintage furniture?

About 10 years ago I found an Eames wireframe chair next to a dumpster in Vancouverā€™s ā€œtrendyā€ part of town - Yaletown. It had been thrown out because one of the welds was loose. I fixed it up and still have it.

Richard- That studio is so badass. I can totally picture Charles Eames sitting there smoking a pipe.

yeah whats the story on that wicked stereo-sideboard peice? ive never seen that before.

Found one of these babies sitting on the curb, in beautiful condition. Love it!

a garage sale in northern indiana where the owner had stacks of eames dining chairs (wood). there were used for seating at a church that had moved on to more traditional seating (pews, i think). he was selling them at $5/ea. i believe he had about 100 in there. i bought a couple because i had a small car.

west michigan turns up some unbelieveable stuff. the classics are so common to them that they donā€™t often realize what they have, so they chuck it or put it in a garage sale. not so much now with the rise of the interwebby and ebay.

Richard, you could charge admission to that place! :open_mouth:
Quite the nice collection.

A couple of years back I found this great chair at the Salvation Army for a buck-fifty. I swore up and down it was one of those diamond in the rough scenariosā€¦ after much research Iā€™ve come to the conclusion that itā€™s a knock off of a Peter Hvidt dining chair.

Oh well. I still have a nice chair that I bought for less than box of pop tarts!

ā€¦on another note, I still canā€™t decide whether I HATE or LOVE the upholsteryā€¦

-JK
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I bought a set of white Herman Miller Eames fiberglass shell chairs for $5 each back in '97 in Providence. I think that was just before mid-century got soooo popularā€¦

They had 3 more chairs for the same price and I still regret not buying all 5. I just didnā€™t have the room at the time, plus I could only fit 2 in my Jeepā€¦

An old girlfriend of mine found a Victorian-style velvet red chaise lounge in mint condition, just sitting on the sidewalk in Savannah, GA. It moved into my apartment with her for a while. She moved to Kansas, and thatā€™s when I lost track of it.

I wonder what ever happened to that old red chaise.

We saw a the noguchi coffee table at an antique store in stillwater mn for 500 once, I figured they didnā€™t know what it was because the label said ā€œbiomorphic coffee tableā€ and I imagined even 500 was too cheap for it if it was indeed real. Later I checked ebay only to see hundreds of knock offs for about that price.

sometimes I think even as a knock off it is a very nice table

I bought a 74 Fender Telecaster in fairly mint condition, with the original case and documents, at a tag sale 3-4 years ago for $150. It is awesome and after having it set up for another $150 it plays like brand new. Itā€™s worth about $2400 or so!

the big cabinet stereo or the pedastal stereo? both i found at a salvation army shop of other second hand kinda store.

i think both cabinets were actually designed here in canada as ive seen them in several design in canada book. the big unit i still had (the other i sold) and the cabinet i believe was produced by delicraft for electrohome. the model is called Circa 701. I was actually in touch with electrohome as while back as they were looking for a unit for there museum but decided not to sell it off. i still use it almost daily and the sound is excellent. warm, full and much better than most off the shelf modern units. im in a hunt now though for a new stylus for the record player as the original got damaged in the shipping back from denmark to toronto recently.

its a beautiful piece and you cant see in the pics but also has a roll top type of cover like some of the george nelson herman miller desks of the 60ā€™s.

R

thanks. that thing is beatiful.

some more pics for your viewing pleasure.

R



Oh thats greatā€¦ im drooling right nowā€¦ i know the chances of such an awesome find are rare, but im keeping my eyes open for that one.

I have some nice Herman Miller Eames chairs shell type, and I had a DAR also. If everybody wants to cringe, when my grandmother moved to a nursing home my cousins had a yard sale for most of her furniture and other thing that she did not need any longer. Like, real Arco lamp-$45!!!( AHHHHHHHH!!!), Nelson clocks (two ,donā€™t know how much they went for but it is safe to say it was well below market). And a LOT of original Knoll and other random Danish modern/mid-cent. furniture. My grandfather was a salesman at a furniture store in Chicago whilst in grad school and then was in college administration. I did get a nice walnut coffee table that is unlabeled but really well made.

This is a bit of a bump, but hey, Iā€™ll make my very own thread just for this if people donā€™t like old threads coming back like zombies. :smiley:

Found two maybe-eames chairs in a utility room at one job. Iā€™m having trouble figuring out of theyā€™re real, or knockoffs since I havenā€™t been able to find good info on what to look for yet, but:
*Legs form an H shape under the seat, bolted to four rubber pads.
*Are the ā€œseafoam greenā€ type with visible fibres
*Legs are silver, no finish
*White plastic feet
*Rectangular label with patents but no Herman Miller logo anything like the images Iā€™ve seen with embossing or metal labels, etc.

Found out more. This is one of the more common bases, but apparently an earlier/more sought-after shell. People take these things and sell just the shell or tack on the more rare legs and jack up the price!

I was back there today to finish something off, and took a seat in one of them. For a nonadjustable formed fibreglass chair these are pretty comfy! I wouldnā€™t want to be in them for hours on end, but much more supporting than I expected. I just might try and get one of these off them.


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I like a good bump. Keeps these old threads active!

Nice score. Looks like it might be real just judging by that underside. If the shell is in good shape that is a nice find. My brother found a great example of a fiberglass shell one in Orange just in a janitors closet at his school a few years back. Like any good student, he stole it, but unfortunately at some point someone drilled a hole through the seat of the shell (probably to drain water for outdoor use) totally ruining the value of it.

when I first moved to Southwest Michigan I started hearing the stories, one co-worker who had worked in the furniture industry years prior seemingly couldnā€™t leave the house without someone giving him a piece of design history, but had no luck no matter where I looked. Finally one day last year I was taking my son to the park and saw an Eames shell in a driveway out of the corner of my eye, so I whipped the van around and checked out this garage sale and found there were 3 chairs and took them all home for $28.

Hereā€™s a pic I took while cleaning them up in the drive way

Actually, the way I found it was on horrid condition. Someone painted on top of the fiberglass shell with a thick, off-white, industrial paint. Using a large brush with very noticeable strokes. So with the help of Kateā€™s (my girlfriendā€™s) dad, the outer coat of paint was sanded down and coated with a classic orange. The rust from the eiffel legs was also blasted off. I then ordered feet/coasters from a reseller of Herman Miller parts from the UK to complete the chair.