Vintage View: Aspirational armchairs for the fireside this autumn
pulls up four aspirational armchairs for the fireside this autumn, along with with a few cheap sneaksto get the look.
The right armchair is the perfect vintage investment. If it has a good frame, the chair can be refreshed every 15-20 years (only in the case of fabric. Battered leather is lovely).
Their role can be indefinite and intergenerational. Choose pieces that look great from every angle and which never compromise on keen comfort, whatever the perch’s age.
Working from the ’40s right through to the turn of the last century, Italian designer and architect, Marco Zanuso (1916-2001), might be a name you’re missed.
However, the shapes of his chairs will strike a familiar note, as they are roundly plagiarised throughout the high-street style lockers.
He was trained at the Polytechnic University of Milan, and the simple, calming lines of his furnishings belie an intense intellectual, who tried to bridge the divide between craftsmanship and mass manufacture.
His Lady Chair, c.1951, in a steel frame and plywood, is regarded by many as the most stylish armchair ever made and is still in production at Cassina.
Look out for restored examples at high-profile, 20th century design sales in Dublin, from €1,500 up. Early wood frames command a premium.
The Lady chair included suspension, using rubber and springs, not seen before in domestic seating. It was presented at the 9th Milan Triennial exhibition, and won gold for its category. New Zanuso Cassina 720 Lady chairs in leather, or with fabrics, by Raf Simons, are priced from €3,060, Minima (Ireland).
If you’ve drooled over the Finn Juhl Chieftain Chair, c.1949, featured in a certain lager commercial (Carlsberg), I have some bad news. You know that nice, nearly-new, second-hand car with Bluetooth, for which you threw down your hard-earned money?
Well, this mid-century throne will knock you back in the order of €15,000 for any reasonable second-hand example, even from the 1990s, when it was revived by Bakers.
With its airy, hardwood frame freed from the upholstery, it’s possibly the most iconic of Danish modernism and maddeningly scarce. If you’re willing to move to a 1954 Spade or late 1940s Chair 45 they are a third of the price for exquisite sculptural comfort, in rosewood and leather. Try 1stdibs.com.
I would take a look at CA Design’s take, in ‘the style of’ Juhl. It’s a very nice, walnut lounge chair for just €850, with considerable quality. Cadesign.ie.
The Torrance, by Woo Design is pared-back, but pleasing, at €279, woodesign.ie. For various examples of Danish open-frame armchairs and diners, try thevintagehub.com (Dublin) and The Vintage Furniture Warehouse, originalcompulsivedesign, (Kilkenny).
With anything by Knoll, you know you’re getting supreme quality, and I would mark out its Eero Saarinen collection for ultimate comfort, for that adult territory from a bedroom to a feature position where you can walk around it and really take it all in, 360°.
Happily, in this case, there’s a lot of surviving Saarinen out there, with sturdy frames, but watch out for fabric wear, when you buy.
The Womb chair has proved itself for 70 years — it’s just so gentle and easy on the eye. Florence Knoll commissioned it from Saarinen in 1946, with the instruction that she wanted something ‘like a basket of pillows, something I could really curl up in’.
Its hugging contours are so inviting, you’ll return to the Womb every evening. The fibreglass shell was so ahead of its time, it was first produced by a boat-builder. Newer editions start at €1,500, for a perfect example in fabric.
Sharper again? We love the catcher’s mitt comfort of Sir Terence Conran’s tilt ’n’ swivel glove chair, €2,235, Content by Conran.
For a casual home office, look out for second-hand Saarninen executive armchairs, around €400, a little more for a swivel. The new Chisa resting chair, at Harvey Norman — channelling the executive nicely, costs €399.
Every now and then, I have to put my reputation on the line for a modern classic I think is worth picking up now and reupholstering in the future. In armchairs, I’ve been slightly obsessing, for some time, over a single design by Made.com, purveyors of so many affordable, original crowd-pleasers to its Europe-wide online fans.
The Frame chair just has that ‘rightness’ to it that makes it an instant classic. I keep coming across it while reviewing some of the most beautiful houses in the country — period, contemporary, bohemian, it’s the best guest anywhere.
It has slender, polished brass frame, bent up into a pleasing supporting form, without any apparent breaks to their run. It’s a little industrial in the most rarefied way, but upholstered in sumptuous velvet in gemstone colour. Hercule Poirot would adore it, too.
With a foam/feather-filled cushion, the quality is there. €665 plus p&p, made.com. Look at the Arto/Stanley variants while you’re on there.
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