Heron Armchair

Heron Armchair

The Heron Armchair is one of two easy chairs in the Ernest Race collection which experimented with new materials in the post-war modernist era. It’s a British design and made leisure chair that holds its own when compared to furniture design classics like Charles and Ray Eames or Eero Saarinen.

The chair design could be described as complex, from its inception just upholstering Heron proved challenging. The techniques required to cover the chair were so technical that when the factory relocated to Sheppey in 1962, Heron was discontinued due to the lack of skilled upholsterers in the area. Even by today’s standards, it’s still considered a challenge to upholster.

Manufacturing Heron required a few innovations to be able to fit the human form and deliver seating comfort. The most significant of them all was the use of Latex foam on a steel frame. Latex foam was invented in 1929, and only after the war was it widely available to the domestic furniture market. The introduction of Latex foam meant Race could abandon the traditional upholstery techniques of springing and stuffing. The combination of Heron's latex foam cushioning and generous seat proportions allow the user to sit in a few different ways.

Dimensions & Details