Eames Catalog
690 Dining Table Pre-Production
1957
Herman Miller
Pre-production Dining Table 690
Eames Aluminum Group Dining Table
Onyx top
28 1/2" H by 42" Diameter
This was purchased in a surf board shop in Los Angeles. The gallery owner reported that he purchased it from a former Eames Office employee. The base has the same shape as the Eames aluminum group base, which became known as the contract base, but the ends of the base have holes, probably a result of the casting process. The size of this base is only 27 1/2" across; the large-size production contract bases for tables were 33" across. On the underside of the onyx four oval-shaped shock mounts, of the type used on the backs of early DCWs and LCWs.
The spider at the top of this pre-production base screws into these shock mounts. In the early years of production of this table it was available from Herman Miller with tops of Botticino marble, honed slate, and opaque white glass.
This base differs in another way from production
models--the center post is wider than the production posts.
The production examples of such tables with marble tops have round shockmounts on their underside of the stone, the same round shock mounts found on the bases of DCWs and LCWs.
Below are close ups of one of the shock mounts and the base by itself.
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