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UPDATED 19-01-06
Origins
For me chair design has held a long fascination, there exists to day several icons in chair design, most have come from that great design period in Germany the "Bauhaus" from the 1920's a design group that exemplified the Machine age since computer modelling and more organic shapes did not exist then, several of these original designs are still being manufactured and held in the highest regard by Architects, Interior designers and owners. To day the trend is to soft shapes and somewhat characterless designs look here you may be influenced in choice.
Recommended reading :
"The Modern Chair" By Clement Meadmore ISBN 0 - 486 - 29807 - 8
A superb book all the classic chairs with design origins, history and some dimension drawings.
"Avantgarde Design 1890 - 1930" By Torsten Brohan / Thomas Berg ISBN 3-8228-8938-5
An excellent book covering chair design from the "Bauhaus" era.
I own only one of those classics the Wassily chair by Marcel Bruer
Any of these classics come at a price eg the "Wassily Chair" the cheapest is ~$500 US
Marcel Breuer
Wassily Chair 1925
Le Corbusier
Chaise longue 1928 
LC2 1929
Gerrit Rietveld
Red Blue Chair 1918
Mies van der Rohe
Barcelona Chair 1929
Others
Charles Eames (USA) the famous lounge chair 670 with footstool (link) guaranteed to put you to sleep by way of its sheer comfort. (~3000 US) :)
Lounge 670 1956
Fred Lowan (Melbourne) Tessa Chairs
Quite outstanding in both design and comfort. the T21 and T4 ( both I own)
Tessa T21
Tessa T4
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