Ebonized base.Provenance: The Estate of Royce G. Engel (1930-2023), a designer for Herman Miller.George Nelson, who had worked as an architect before turning to furniture design, brought his architectural sensibilities to his new trade. Launched in 1947, his Slat Bench featured outstanding craftsmanship and flaunting a practical, functional and enduring modern design with an affordable price tag. The bench could serve families as a (coffee) table, a seat/bench and/or a base for related storage systems; and its multi-faceted nature reflected how Herman Miller radically reimagined the postwar domestic interior. However, when compared to the 1947 bench (still manufactured today), this particular specimen of the bench features a different type of leg design. Unlike that finalised standard version of his slant bench, we believe that this specific bench now at Link predates the mass-manufactured ones, serving as an early prototype when designers at Herman Miller were testing out different kinds of leg styles and designs.Royce G. Engel worked as an innovative mechanical engineer over the course of his long career that was spent mostly at General Motors, McDonnell Douglas and Engel Systems (that he founded in 1976). In the midst of those years dedicated to a wide variety of engineering projects, from 1959 to 1962 he worked as the Director of Technical Research at Herman Miller, an office furniture and residential furniture manufacturer based in Zeeland, Michigan. Engel holds patents as co-inventor for two highly successful furniture product innovations assigned to Herman Miller: the Herman Miller Furniture Comprehensive Storage System Bracket and the the Herman Miller Furniture Dress Strip. In his innovative and influential position as Technical Center Director, Engel stood at the nexus of Herman Miller furniture prototypes, designs and collections. Length: 48 inches; Height: 15 1/2 inches; Depth: 20 1/4 inches