Whilst searching for your favourite designer piece of furniture you will have noticed the huge price variation between suppliers. It may be tempting to pay in the region of £400 instead of £4000 for a Lounge chair, but you would almost certainly be buying an unauthorised copy. Does this matter? Well it depends on your point of view. If you want to enjoy its every detail and admire it every day you may well feel let down in buying a copy. And if you want to keep the chair in your family for many years and pass it on to future generations, a copy is unlikely to be for you. It's unlikely to last the distance! An authorised version is made by trained, dedicated craftsmen and will last a lifetime. A cheap copy is an unauthorised version, made with inferior materials and without the designer's permission. There is also an argument which says that companies who make copies and swamp the market drive designers out of business, so there will be fewer new design classics of the future. And the world will become a boring place. The rule is simple: if you want a design classic, buy authentic and you won't be disappointed.

So how do you check that what you are buying is an authorised original Eames Lounge Chair? Only Vitra have the rights to manufacture Eames furniture in Europe. So the genuine article will have a black Vitra sticker with the Charles Eames signature on the base. The chair should have five legs, some copies only have four. The ottoman has four legs. There are three plywood options for the seat shell: Santos Palisander veneer; cherry veneer; or black laquered (cherry stained black). The leather upholstery is totally removable using a discreet zip-system.  The chair and ottoman has a die-cast aluminium swivel base, which is available chromed or black with top edges polished, as shown in this image. Finally, these chairs are made in Germany; most copies are made in Italy or China. ALL EAMES CHAIRS MADE IN ITALY ARE COPIES!

To view the Eames Lounge Chair range please go to our Eames section.