Kem Weber — The Airline Chair Returns

The Story

A Machine-Age Icon, Ahead of Its Time

Karl Emanuel Martin "Kem" Weber arrived in California from Berlin in 1914 and became the leading modernist of the American West Coast. In 1934 he drew the Airline Chair — a cantilevered silhouette of bent wood and taut upholstery, named for the streamlined age of flight it embodied.

Decades before flat-pack furniture existed, the Airline Chair shipped unassembled in a slim box with a carrying handle, designed to be put together at home without tools. Only two to three hundred were ever made — most furnishing the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, the campus Weber himself designed.

Today, originals reside in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Victoria & Albert Museum, LACMA, and MoMA — and command extraordinary prices at auction. Mass production never came in Weber's lifetime. Until now.

Original Kem Weber Airline armchair in dark leather

The Chair

Every Line, As Weber Drew It

Faithful to the original drawings and surviving examples, each chair is built by hand in the United States — bent hardwood frame, saddle-stitched upholstery, and the unmistakable cantilever that floats the sitter mid-air.

Close detail of the Airline Chair's bent wood arm and leather — The Cantilever
A single sweep of laminated hardwood carries the seat with no rear legs — engineering disguised as elegance.

Original brass hardware and joinery detail — The Joinery
Honest, visible hardware and interlocking joints — the chair still assembles by hand, exactly as Weber intended in 1934.

The Silhouette

The profile that gave the chair its name — a streamlined line drawn from the age of aviation, unmistakable from across a room.

The Editions

One Design, Four Expressions

Upholstery drawn from the surviving originals — each edition built to order, numbered, and signed.

The Family

“

My great-grandfather believed good design should reach people's lives, not just museum walls. Bringing the Airline Chair back — built the way he intended, by hand, in America — is how we honor that belief.

Riley Herman

Great-grandson of Kem Weber · Trained architect · Steward of the Weber legacy

This relaunch is fully authorized by the Weber family and led by Riley Herman, who studied architecture before turning to the family archive. Every decision — from timber selection to stitch pattern — is measured against original drawings, period photographs, and surviving examples.

Authenticity

Certified by the World's Leading Authority

Each chair is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity individually signed by Christopher Long — Professor of architectural history and author of Kem Weber: Designer and Architect (Yale University Press), the definitive study of Weber's life and work.

No reproduction carries this. Only the authorized edition does.

Each Chair Includes

Signed certificate of authenticity by Christopher Long
Edition number, hand-stamped to the frame
Authorization seal of the Weber family estate
Archival booklet on the chair's history and care

The Legacy

Beyond the Chair

The Airline Chair is the first of Weber's designs to return. The archive holds more — clocks, casegoods, and seating that defined American streamline moderne.

Kem Weber Zephyr digital clock in brass — The Zephyr Clock

Kem Weber lacquered sideboard — The Sideboard

Kem Weber tubular armchair — The Armchair

Kem Weber stepped silver vase — The Vase

The First Edition

Be First in Ninety Years

The inaugural edition of the Airline Chair will be released in strictly limited numbers. Join the waitlist for first access, edition details, and the story as it unfolds.

Welcome. You're on the list — we'll be in touch.

No noise. Only the chair.

Private Preview