The first fiberglass chair to be mass-produced, Eero Saarinen’s armchair was hailed as revolutionary when it appeared on the American market in 1948. It was derived from experiments Saarinen had conducted with Charles Eames on molded-plywood seat shells and was awarded first prize in The Museum of Modern Art’s “Organic Design” competition of 1940. Like the original prototype shown in 1940, this production model was fitted with foam-rubber padding and a fabric cover to ensure continuous comfortable support using a minimum of material. Available commercially only after the war, the glass-reinforced plastic out of which Saarinen made the molded shell gave the chair added resiliency.