We’re proud to offer this handsome and highly original Georgian wingback, built in England around 1780, for sale. As you may have read in our Instagram posts, the piece has undergone extensive and expert restoration and reupholstery.
The chair is covered in a robust, antique hemp - woven in the 1800s - and has been masterfully hand-dyed using the alchemic qualities of plants; namely indigo (blue) and weld (yellow). The result is a dazzlingly beautiful, rich, deep green. We have ornamented the hemp with block prints from our ‘Lost’ series, all in an iridescent blue. Thus, a scrimshawed comb, an engraved thimble, a clay pipe and a rebus talisman - long-lost, lamented objects - adorn the chair alongside cursive script, dates and serifed letters. The narrative imagery is present on the inside back, outside back, seat (cushion), inside arms and outside arms. Some of the tales appear in full, others are fragmented - emblematic of how time can distort stories, or lose parts of them altogether. The block prints contrast beautifully with the hemp’s ground colour, whispering rather than shouting.
However, it’s not just the eyes the chair appeals to. The antique hemp has the feel only a century and a half can bestow; a delight for the fingertips too. The piece is generously proportioned, a joy to sit in. Being a wingback, it has an enfolding quality - the perfect place to lose oneself in thought, reverie and reflection.
The chair’s legs and stretchers are mahogany - simple, square and typical of the period. All show-wood has been gently cleaned and beeswaxed but retains its historic patina. The piece has its original, unobtrusive brass castors.
Dimensions - Width (back): 59cm Width (seat): 50cm Width (widest point): 87cm Height (back): 104cm Height (seat with cushion): 47cm Depth (seat): 58cm Depth (chair): 87cm
Artists - Cameron Short & Janet Tristram in collaboration with traditional upholsterers Harriet Page and Thomas Evans.
We ship worldwide (this is charged separately).
