Set of 4 vintage Purple S-Chair by Verner Panton for Herman Miller 1958s

Design: 1958-1967 Series production: 1967-1979 and 1983 to present day Without a doubt the Panton Chair is Verner Panton’s best known and perhaps most significant design. Its form, which is as unusual as it is striking, and the innovations in production technology which are related to this piece of furniture have made it an icon of chair design in the twentieth century. Panton seems to have been experimenting with the idea of a cantilever chair made out of a single section of material as early as 1956, on the occasion of a furniture competition by the firm of WK-Möbel. There are sketches from 195859 which already clearly prefigure the Panton Chair. A short time later Panton had a full scale model of his chair concept made from polystyrene which was not suitable for sitting on but would help him find a manufacturer. Today this model, which is often incorrectly described as a prototype, is part of the collection of the Vitra Design Museum and shows significant differences to the later Panton Chair. In the early Sixties Panton came into contact with Willi Fehlbaum, the managing director of Vitra at the time, who indicated his readiness to develop the chair to the series production stage, Panton moved with his family to Basle. However, it was not until the years between 1965 and 1967 that the development work on the chair was driven forward intensively. In August 1967 the Panton Chair was presented to the public for the first time. Since then the chair has been produced in four different versions from four different types of plastic and with the aid of different types of production technology. There were both financial and aesthetic reasons for the change in materials. All versions were developed in close cooperation between the manufacturer and Verner Panton. Material: The production history of the Panton Chair is as follows: 196768 initial series production from cold-moulded, fibre-glass reinforced polyester resin, painted in various colours. Manufacturer: Herman MillerVitra 1968-1971 the second series model made of polyurethane rigid foam, painted in various colours. Manufacturer: Herman MillerVitra 1971-1979 the third series model made of coloured thermoplastic polystyrene (Luran S). The chairs made of this material can be identified by the ridges below the bend between the seating area and the base. Manufacturer: Vitra; in the USA until 1975 Herman Miller The Panton Chair was not in production from 1979 to 1983.