KEM Weber Chairs
American, German, 1889-1963
Architect and designer Kem Weber arrived in the United States in the vanguard of a wave of progressive Central European talents — among them, Rudolph Schindler, Richard Neutra, Paul T. Frankl and Ilonka Karascz — who would profoundly affect the course of modernism in the United States. In his new home, Weber created a wholly American form of modern design that is sleek and stylish, yet comfortable and practical.
Karl Emanuel Martin Weber — “Kem” was his self-styled nom d’usage — was born and trained in Berlin. In 1914, he became an accidental immigrant to the U.S.. Sent to San Francisco by his teacher-turned-employer, architect Bruno Paul, to oversee an installation at a global design expo, Weber was marooned by the outbreak of World War I. But he quickly grew to love California, even if his early years there were difficult. When design commissions were hard to find, he took jobs as a lumberjack, chicken farmer and art school teacher. (He gained U.S. citizenship in 1924.)
In the mid-1920s, while working for the Los Angeles–based Barker Bros. department store — the largest furniture retailer in the country at the time — Weber regularly traveled around the nation to deliver lectures on modernism. His reputation as a champion of a new, clean and elegant style earned him architectural commissions and contracts to design furniture and items such silverware, coffee services and cocktail shakers. His masterpiece is the Airline lounge chair, designed 1934-1935. With its raked, gently angular frame and cantilevered seat, the chair suggests movement, speed and forward progress. Though it seemed perfect for mass production, Weber was never able to convince a major manufacturer to take it on. In the end, fewer than 300 Airline chairs were made. Today, those may be the rarest examples of Weber’s work, but are always worth looking out for. As you will see on these pages, his designs are both intelligent and stylish. They deserve to be a part of any serious collection of American modernism.
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Creator: Kem Weber
Kem Weber for Lloyd Furniture Pair of Chairs
By Kem Weber, lloyd manufacturing co.
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Pair of hard to find Lloyd Chrome Chairs from the 1930's. Designed by Kem Weber. Couple repairs as seen in photos that discolored the chrome a bit...
Category
1930s American Machine Age Vintage KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Chrome
KEM Weber Machine Age Springer Chair
By Kem Weber
Located in Brooklyn, NY
For your consideration is KEM Weber’s iconic machine age springer chair with ivory canvas upholstery and original chrome finish. The chair is notably comf...
Category
1930s American Machine Age Vintage KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Chrome
Related Items
KEM Weber Counter Height Chrome Stool
By Kem Weber
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Art deco, counter height stool by KEM Weber features a chrome frame with marbleized vinyl seat and back.
Category
Early 20th Century American Art Deco KEM Weber Chairs
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Machine age Industrial Nickel Plated Steel Lounge Chairs
By Warren McArthur
Located in Las Vegas, NV
Nickel plated tubular steel lounge chairs with large Naugahyde upholstered cushions. These are built like tanks and extremely comfortable.
Upholstery and inner springs are in excelle...
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1930s American Machine Age Vintage KEM Weber Chairs
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Vintage Kem Weber Deco Chrome Chaise Lounge for Lloyd
By lloyd manufacturing co., Kem Weber
Located in Chicago, IL
Dramatic Kem Weber Chaise Lounge in original upholstery. The color and condition of the vinyl is in pretty nice shape minus the tear at the seam. I think if the color is desirable it...
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Mid-20th Century American Art Deco KEM Weber Chairs
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Chrome
Kem Weber Streamline Moderne Chaise Lounge
By lloyd manufacturing co., Kem Weber
Located in San Francisco, CA
An early 1930s Streamline Moderne chaise lounge or daybed by Kem Weber for Lloyd Manufacturing Co.
A sleek yet comfortable piece displaying the hor...
Category
1930s American Streamlined Moderne Vintage KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
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Streamline Art Deco Cantilever Chair Chrome & Red Vinyl Attr Kem Webber-Lloyds
By lloyd manufacturing co., Kem Weber
Located in Topeka, KS
Fabulous streamline modern cantilever chair comprised of chrome frame and tomato red vinyl faux leather upholstery attributed to KEM Weber for Lloyd’s Manufacturing. Beautiful condition with wear as you would expect with a vintage piece. This one looks like it was seldom used! Please see photos, Circa Mid Century.
WOW!!!! What a gorgeous tomato red streamline modern cantilever chair!!!! Attributed to KEM Weber for Lloyd’s Manufacturing and categorized in many design styles; Art Deco, Machine Age, Streamline Modern, Art Moderne, and Bauhaus. Too many awesome styles to choose just one… So, you pick!! This chair is comprised of a tubular chrome cantilever frame and is upholstered in a bright and beautiful red vinyl faux leather that demands attention. This piece has no tag or markings but is done in the style of the era’s greats: Gilbert Rohde, Wolfgang Hoffman, Warren McArthur, Donald Desky, Alfons Bach, Gilbert Rhode, Marcel Breuer, and from online searches attributed to KEM Weber for Lloyd’s Manufacturing. It doesn’t get much better than that!! You could use this fabulous chair in your living room, bedroom, sitting room, or kitchen. It would be a wonderful chair at a vanity or a stylish place to sit to take off your shoes in the entry way. The possibilities are truly endless.
KEM Weber (1889-1963) was a German-born architect and furniture designer. His birth name was Karl Emanuel Martin Weber but in 1914, he changed his first name to a less German sounding, 'Kem' when he became stranded in the USA after the outbreak of the First World War. Kem Architecture was part of the West Coast Modernist movement in America. His designs included many projects and products in Streamline Modern, a form of Art Deco design and architecture that was extremely popular in the USA and Europe in the 1930s. This style emphasized curved forms and long horizontal lines; it was the epitome of sophistication and modernity in that era. Streamline Modern was used for everything from stainless steel cocktail shakers...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Streamlined Moderne KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Chrome
H 31 in W 20.75 in D 22 in
Pair of Art Deco Tubular Chrome Lounge Chairs, K E M Weber, Lloyd
By Kem Weber
Located in Buffalo, NY
Pair of Art Deco tubular chrome lounge chairs designed by K E M Weber for Lloyd Manufacturing Co., Classic streamline design. Extremel...
Category
20th Century American Art Deco KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Chrome
KEM Weber Springer Armchair for Lloyd
By lloyd manufacturing co., Kem Weber
Located in Van Nuys, CA
Known as the “Springer” chair, the chairs sit on flat band chrome iron springs and function as rocking chairs.
The chair retains its original chrome and with newly made cushions.
...
Category
1930s American Art Deco Vintage KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Metal
Ron Arad Spring Collection Soft Heart Chair for Moroso
By Moroso, Ron Arad
Located in Miami, FL
Spring Collection Soft Heart chair designed by Ron Arad in 1988 for Moroso. This example is from the early 1990s. The base of the chair is weighted w...
Category
Late 20th Century Italian Modern KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Steel
Pr. 1930's Machine Age Art Deco Arm Side Dining Chairs possibly Prototypes
By John Carpenter, McKay Furniture Corp.
Located in New York, NY
Unusual pair of period Machine Age arm chairs, having chrome plated steel frames, wood seating backrests, and leather upholstered armrests. We believe these could be early prototypes, as we have not seen this form before, nor can we find any examples in the literature. The construction, style and materials make us think they were made by McKay Craft...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Machine Age KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Steel
Lloyd Kem Weber Tubular Chrome Steel Red Vinyl Cantilever Arm Chair
By Kem Weber
Located in Philadelphia, PA
Lloyd Kem Weber Tubular chrome steel red vinyl cantilever arm chair. Item features red vinyl upholstery, tubular chrome metal frame, very nice vi...
Category
Early 20th Century Art Deco KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Chrome
Art Deco Machine Age Sling Chair by McKay Craft Furniture Company
By John McKay, McKay Furniture Corp.
Located in New York, NY
Iconic Art Deco, Machine Age sling seat lounge chair having elegant chrome and black arms on a blacked steel spring base. The chair is in overall very good condition, the chrome is b...
Category
Early 20th Century American Art Deco KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Chrome, Steel
Space Age Mod White Fiberglass Ball Chair Style Girasole Chair Luciano Frigerio
By Luciano Frigerio
Located in Topeka, KS
Awesome Space Age Mod style ball chair in the style of the Girasole chair by Luciano Frigerio. Comprised of white fiberglass resin ball seat & base and ...
Category
Late 20th Century Unknown Space Age KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Fabric, Fiberglass, Foam
H 39 in W 41.5 in D 41.25 in
Previously Available Items
Iconic Airline Lounge Chair by Kem Weber, 1930's
By Kem Weber
Located in Phoenix, AZ
Kem Weber airline chair circa late 1930’s. This chair appears to be all original.
Category
1930s American Mid-Century Modern Vintage KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Brass
K.E.M. Weber Airline Armchair
By Kem Weber
Located in Los Angeles, CA
K.E.M. Weber (1889-1963)
Airline armchair
Disney Studios, Burbank, California, 1934. Manufactured by Airline Chair Company, Los Angeles, California. Birch veneer, ash, naugahyde, s...
Category
Mid-20th Century North American Mid-Century Modern KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Leather, Birch
Pair of Kem Weber Chairs
By Kem Weber
Located in Palm Springs, CA
A pair of 1930s chrome and upholsterd chairs designed by Kem Weber.
Newly reupholster in a faux shagreen leather with black leather piping.
Category
1930s American Art Deco Vintage KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Chrome
1930s Pair of KEM Weber Chairs in Cowhide
By Kem Weber
Located in New York, NY
A 1930s pair of KEM Weber chairs with chrome frame. Newly upholstered in cowhide.
Category
Mid-20th Century American Modern KEM Weber Chairs
Materials
Chrome
Kem Weber chairs for sale on 1stDibs.
Kem Weber chairs are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of upholstery and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Kem Weber chairs, although gray editions of this piece are particularly popular. Many of the original chairs by Kem Weber were created in the mid-century modern style in united states during the 1930s. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider chairs by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Vladimir Kagan, and Warren McArthur. Prices for Kem Weber chairs can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at $750 and can go as high as $19,500, while a piece like these, on average, fetch $1,440.