Archeology of a chair
Sun, 26 Feb 2012 18 Comments 
You may or may not remember this chair. I bought it from my friends at The Vintage Advantage. Not because of its stunningly dusty barkcloth upholstery and its ugly lines but because of its handmade appearance. There was something about this chair. I lifted its skirt (yes I am a furniture pervert) and saw that the seat was an old box. A piece of depression era furniture I thought? It sat for months leaving sad little piles of dust until last week when I decided to undress it. What an adventure. What a find. Layer upon layer of fabric that just got older and older. Then I found even more ...
Six layers of fabric on the body and nine on the arms. Then finally the arms appeared to be covered in a piece of quilt ...
Except it wasn't a quilt. It was a pair of sleeves with cuffs and underneath were pieces of old clothes. Late Victorian/early Edwardian women's bodices, sleeves cut off and wound around too. Beautiful, old, ruined rags. The back was "webbed" with two old sugar sacks for support. Colonial Sugar Refining Co Ltd Brisbane. CSR as it came to be known. My early and not too thorough research shows it was known as Colonial Sugar Refining Co Ltd up until 1915 when it started to be differentiated by region ... Colonial Sugar Refining Australia or Colonial Sugar Refining New Zealand and Fiji. I'm not so sure that my piece is a depression piece. I'm tending to believe that it was a piece of homemade furniture from the early 20s. There was a lot of soldier settler activity west of here after WWI as bush farm tracks were opened up. My romantic notion is it was made for one of these farms when money was tight and people were inventive.
The box reads "Brisbane" faintly as well. I've cleaned the chair, pulled out a lot of the upholstery tacks (from 6 layers of upholstery) but still left some for their effect. A little judicious sanding mainly for splinters and a careful oil to bring out the old grain. As rough as old guts but just splendid in its utilitarian plainness. It's sitting under the stairs in the new "library". You'll see it there when I take photos of the space soon.
Reader Comments (18)
This is a sort of story I like. What an adventure, a "Zeitreise"
I appreciate your blog very much. Evening or morning,,everytime i do a click on this inspiring site, I find something new.
Thanks and greetings from Switzerland between the both places you are living Kim an Jo.
It is so beautiful Jo what fun you must have had undressing her. Built with love, no doubt ,it is wonderful to me that it has survived and will continue to be loved.
I don't know what to say except....holy sh*t!
hat off to you gal... never in a kazillion years would i have purchased this chair... what a lesson i have learnt... never judge a book by its cover indeed! {i should have reviewed your earlier post more thoroughly!} .... you have unearthed a real treasure... how beautiful this is in its rawest form... the angles and the simplicity and then the ingenuity with which they "upholstered" this with layer upon layer of discarded clothing and assorted fabrics... what a story... love, love, love it!
I rubbed it with danish oil and it has darkened a little. I'm kinda wishing I had just bee's waxed it but it sure was thirsty :) It's my new favourite piece in the house. Ugly but beautiful.
Brilliant domestic archaeology MCJ - thanks for sharing your discovery of relics from a very different world when nothing was wasted. You could make a little art work from the fabric pieces.
Wow! What a project. Wonderful piece of material culture. Do you have plans for the fabric scraps you rescued?
Amazing.
A real archeological dig! Could you make a patchwork pillow or cushion for it from the scraps, or are they too fragile?
I'm going to put the scraps, particularly the clothes, in acid free tissue in an acid free box and pop that into the seat so everything is kept together.
Amazing - how rewarding to find so many clues to its origin and history during the deconstruction. And the bones of it make a beautiful piece of furniture.
I love posts like this. What a wonderful story and history from that single chair. xx
Being a chair freak I just loved your story.... not quite beautiful but exuding character in its naked state. Here's the subject for your first novel Jo!! Such fun to imagine the lives of all its owners, the scenarios for all its different claddings. All the best.
Jo what an unbelievable find!!! Fascinating for you to have kept unraveling and peeling back the layers to find this piece of Australian history... what a lovely surprise it is so so cool!
Carla x
what a great story. it unfoldeded like a history, detective novel. i love chairs. i've bought so many beautiful used chairs only to discover their amazing true nature. this chair is so cool, so special and i love the victorian arm coverings. thanks for posting about it. it made me smile!! xo, annette http://www.820am.blogspot.com
On;y just saw this - it is better than beautiful! You will love this chair For Ever.
Thanks again everyone for your comments :) Yes the chair is now a treasured "keeper".
i think this is the most amazing thing i've seen in quite a while.