Limited-edition Eames Chair by Vitra Features Saul Steinberg Drawing

Design house Vitra is reviving the iconic Eames chair with a special illustration from New Yorker magazine alum Saul Steinberg.

The Eames chair is an iconic piece of furniture that revolutionized the design industry when it was first introduced in 1950. It was the world's first industrially mass-produced chair, made of a plastic shell resting on a series of different bases.

Romanian-American artist Saul Steinberg put his own spin on the Eames chair with a simplistic, yet captivating recreation of his cat. Steinberg was famous for his signature line drawings, and when he saw the sinuous design of the new chair, he was inspired to use it as a base for a series of his own drawings.

Available in only 500 pieces, Vitra worked closely with the Eames office and furniture-maker Herman Miller. They enlisted a specialised firm to scan the original chair to generate a template for the new design. This allowed the company to reproduce Steinberg's invention in as much detail as possible, painstakingly recreating his drawing onto the chair's modern version.

Steinberg was known for his love of cats, and several of the over-8000 drawings, paintings, and New Yorker covers he produced over his career included them. He often depicted himself as a bespectacled cat, and his own cat Papoose was a frequent model for his drawings.

In addition to the Eames Chair experiments, Steinberg also incorporated cats into furniture design, drawing feline heads on walls to complete four-legged stools and tables.

The official drop launches Jun. 14, so stay tuned to the Vitra website for more information.

Register here to get early access to the Saul Steinberg Eames chair sale.