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For Dale Chihuly, collecting is a compulsion. For him, objects are more visually pleasing in multiple, displayed on bookshelves in his home or the giant shelves in his warehouse.

On the third floor of his expansive Tacoma space, on a top shelf above numerous glassworks created over many years, sit the artist’s prized vintage designer chairs. Although Chihuly says he has always owned well-designed furniture, it wasn’t until he saw a gallery exhibition of chairs about 20 years ago that he started collecting them. “When I saw all those chairs together in one place, it really made me want to have them, so I bought half of them,” he says. No insignificant impulse buy, Chihuly’s purchase included a 1952 Frank Lloyd Wright chair and a Le Corbusier chaise lounge, LC4, both of which are practically priceless today. 

Chihuly is not alone as an artist-collector. Andy Warhol famously collected objects such as cookie jars, Art Deco artifacts and costume jewelry. When Chihuly visited Warhol’s New York brownstone right after the pop icon died in 1987, he saw dozens of unopened shopping bags. “He was probably far more interested in buying than in owning,” Chihuly muses.

San Francisco’s de Young Museum hosts an all-encompassing exhibit on Dale Chihuly this summer. Titled simply “Chihuly,” the exhibit focuses on the artist whom many consider the most famous craft and glass artist living today, including his internationally recognized work, his artistic approach, as well as his collections and how they influence his artistic vision. “Chihuly” runs June 14–September 28. Details: 415-750-3600.

Daniel Meltzer and Jason Hallman, owners of Area 51 on Capitol Hill, fondly remember Chihuly coming into their store to buy vintage pieces a few years ago. “He just instinctually knows,” Meltzer says of Chihuly’s taste. “He would go right to the best pieces and purchase them.” The pair loved talking design with the glass artist. “He’s not buying what’s popular,” Meltzer says. “He’s buying what he’s interested in. It’s fascinating that what he’s interested in later becomes so recognized.”

Most of Chihuly’s chairs were designed by 20th-century modern-masters who wanted to create sculptural originality instead of reinventing past design traditions. It’s no wonder many of these chairs are collected like fine art by design connoisseurs and valued as such.

“I really just can’t think of any other piece of furniture that is as interesting as the chair,” Chihuly says, noting that chairs have to be functional and comfortable as well as aesthetically pleasing. “Maybe it’s because it’s complicated even if it looks simple? I suppose the sofa has a lot of the same qualities ... but who wants to collect sofas?”

Although Chihuly would like to add a few specific pieces to his collection, he admits he will most likely buy whatever unique and unusual gem comes his way. Fourteen years ago, when one of his staff—what he terms a “picker”—found 100 Eames molded lounge chairs with metal legs and asked how many he wanted, Chihuly said, “I’ll take the whole hundred.”

It was fortuitous timing and, once again, not just an impulse buy—he had just commissioned an 88-foot-long dining table for his Lake Union boathouse and was in need of about 75 extra seats.

Chihuly’s Le Corbusier chaise lounge, LC4, may have been originally upholstered in pony—or calf—hide, but the spots have worn off over the years. “Occasionally I’ll buy a brand-new mid-century piece, but it just doesn’t feel right unless it’s used,” he says.	At one point, Chihuly owned five of Gideon Kramer’s Ion chairs, designed for the restaurant at the 1962-built Space Needle, but he gave two to a fellow artist about five years ago. One of the world’s largest collections of these chairs was kept in the World Trade Center and was destroyed on September 11, 2001.
Another of Chihuly’s favorites is the “Airline” armchair, designed by Kem Weber in 1934. “Why these things don’t break, I have no idea,” he says.	Frank Lloyd Wright designed this easy chair for his only skyscraper, the Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, built in 1952–1956. “I have sort of mixed feelings about this chair, but I wanted it in the collection because Frank Lloyd Wright was one of my great heroes,” Chihuly says.
The Neptune stacking and folding deck chair was commissioned in 1953 for P&O’s Orient Line, designed out of plywood and beech laminate so that it could withstand salt air. Chihuly’s 1957 version, made by Race Furniture is lacking the original seat and back cushions, but he likes it better this way.	This beaded Yoruba armchair is one of six that Chihuly owns. “They’re really beautiful, they’re pretty comfortable and each one is different,” he says. The Yoruba people are from West Africa, what is now Nigeria, and make beaded thrones like this for royalty and other VIPs.

The Eames molded plywood lounge chair (above, left), designed by Charles and Ray Eames in 1946 and declared the “Best Design of the 20th Century” by Time magazine in 1999, is one of Chihuly’s favorites—especially his unique version covered in pony hide. He also likes his Eames molded plastic rocker, designed in 1948.