Charles and Ray Eames applied the same breakthrough technology that resulted in their famous molded plywood chairs to create this simple, lightweight, imaginative table in the mid-1940s.

With its thin, slightly indented top and gently curved legs, the table speaks eloquently of the fertile early years of classic Eames design.

In 1945, George Nelson, the Herman Miller design director, saw the molded plywood coffee table and other ground-breaking Eames molded plywood pieces at a showing at the Barclay Hotel in New York. Nelson was so impressed that he told company president D.J. De Pree that Herman Miller had to hire the Eameses. De Pree demurred—the company was still very small at the time and he wasn't convinced that it needed any designer other than Nelson. But finally he succumbed and went to see the Eames molded plywood pieces when they were shown at the Museum of Modern Art. Nelson contacted the Eameses, and soon afterward, Charles and Ray were designing for Herman Miller. The table went into production in 1946.