1st Generation ESU Cabinet model 220C by Charles & Ray Eames for Herman Miller

A rather iconic design from Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller, Eames Shelving Units or ESU for short have recently reached a new level of collectability due to the rarity especially of the First Generation, produced in 1950. Lots of modern biographies have described the Eames ESU as possibly having Japanese influences in its visual and industrial design (which would certainly have been bold for the post war US). There are other theories, one being that it resembles Meccano, invented in 1898 by toy train maker Hornby, likely due to the metal frames and the fact that the buyer had to construct the units in early market examples. Another is that the design influence may well have come from the artwork of Mondrian, the Dutch artist famed for abstract art of square and rectangular pattern using black lines and red, yellow and blue panels in between. The units were by no means a commercial failure but the changing requirements of Herman Miller's move away from the plywood furniture, m