3679 Table

This table is officially dubbed model 3679 but is familiarly known as the La Fonda Coffee Table because of the relation of its base to the La Fonda chairs the Eameses designed at the behest of Alexander Girard for the La Fonda del Sol restaurant in New York City. Girard’s only stipulation was that the chairs’ backs rise no higher than the dining tables. To meet this requirement, the Eameses designed new fiberglass shell chair forms with lower profiles than their existing models. The other major innovation of the group was new base designs: a four-part, four-columned pedestal which the Eameses adapted to a two-part base for a series of tables. To achieve a base made of only two parts, the Eameses devised a cast aluminum form with a column that flared into a four-pronged spider. Welded together at the columns’ ends, one spider became the base and the other the tabletop attachment. Requiring a single mold, this innovation streamlined the aluminum casting process. The side tables were sold with natural stone tops such as the black slate option seen here, as well as white onyx with brown veins, and Carrara, Perlato, and Botticino marbles.