Why are French Leather Club Chairs so popular? Have you ever experienced the comfort and feel of a club chair? If you have, these questions probably sound pretty ridiculous. If you have not experienced a French Leather Club Chair, nothing in this modern era of chair production even comes close.
“If these leather club chairs are so comfortable, where can I find such gems because I’ve been to high-end furniture stores and I never see them?” First of all, the most comfortable leather club chairs are the ones that have a little character and have been broken in. Yes, I know what you are thinking…. used club chairs? But club chairs have been considered Vintage furniture for a while now and are quickly becoming collectibles. Plus club chairs from the 1920s and 1930s are inching their way into the antique category. The majority of Vintage club chairs were made in the 1920s to early 1970.
Having noticed her very first French club chair in Michigan in the late 1980’s, our store’s owner immediately fell in love. The chair was reminiscent of her favorite clothing, tattered edges, being incredibly soft, well worn, and that unmistakable feeling that is the perfect fit. All these attributes and more translate into one of the most comfortable, vintage appearing yet current, up to date and hip furnishings you’ll ever own. It doesn’t matter if you like vintage French furniture, brand new furniture, authentic antiques or sleek contemporary—the fact remains, that once you’ve experienced a true vintage French club chair you’ll always own at least one.
Not only are you purchasing a beautiful and comfortable piece of very functional furniture, but these gems will be a great investment as an antique in the future.
Depending on the chairs, some are very close to becoming antiques already. The standard for any type of furniture becoming an antique is 100 years minimum.
Now, getting back to where you can find these leather club chairs…mostly from antique dealers, antique furniture stores and interior designers to name a few.
In Chicago, for example, there are many antique stores, maybe over a 100 or so. Though only a few of them though carry antique furniture in quantity and have many selections to choose from. If you don’t live near a major metroplex, the odds of finding club chairs at the local antique or consignment shop is rare. That’s where an interior designer can help in your search. Some antique furniture dealers in the big cities even have websites that show their current inventory and some websites are totally interactive and enabling you can chat with the owner plus make a purchase if you find the perfect set of chairs.
If you already have an interior designer, they will have their connections and their people to help you in your search. Interior designers can be a great resource when designing a room, a first or second floor or your entire home. Antiques on Old Plank Road (aka Old Plank) prides itself on having worked on many designer projects, helped select antique furniture for a design firm’s clients and designers keep on coming back. Old Plank has worked with more than one thousand designers and design firms all across the world.
Once you find a great place to shop or have a designer do the initial shopping for you, then the fun looking at many different designs, quality of leathers, condition of your Vintage piece and most important, the comfortability of your chair(s). In our second installment, we will discuss the vital components to look for before the purchase of your new investment.
As far as the establishment you are investing in for the purchase of your club chairs, here are some questions you should be either investigating and/or asking your source.
- Proof that your chair was manufactured in France. Ask how the product got to the US, was it shipped on a container, who made the purchase in France?
- How many years has your establishment been in business selling antique furniture? Ask, with this economy, even Starbucks has closed and pulled the plug on many locations recently before they occupied the property.
- How many leather club chairs have they sold? Know their speciality, would you buy a Porsche from someone who has sold only one at his facility before? Porsche dealers know their product inside and out, if something goes wrong, what is the sure fire approach in getting the best results for you the customer? Are you investing in the Porsche dealer of antique furniture and vintage French club chairs?
- Can they repair the chair(s) if something unfortunate happens or you want some minor changes made? Having the ability to fix the product in-house or make minor, even some major, changes is more important than you think. At Old Plank, a decent amount of our business is in making restorations, changing items to fit the customer’s needs, even changing the leather of the whole chair to match other furniture.
- Can they make a reproduction piece identical to the one(s) you are looking at? Again, having options now and in the future is usually a good thing. Whether its making a similar piece or getting future antiques that can match your chair selection(s). At Old Plank, we get a lot of requests to match and/or design a totally new item (see picture #opc1020).
- Do they have a showroom, workshop and a warehouse? Beware that some dealers are selling from their homes, have a storage facility for their warehouse and don’t have a repair workshop at all.
- Do they have access to a workshop who specializes in Old World furniture manufacturing and restoration? This is really hard to find, but the experts stand behind their product and if something breaks, you need to know this company can fix it right the first time.
- How current are they? Are they on the web, social media and using the latest technologies? During this recession that we are now getting out of, how a company looks to stay around in business for the next 20 years is very important for the consumer.
In business since 1992, Old Plank has bought and sold well over 1,000 of these incredible chairs. We have had singles, pairs and sets, fabric upholstered, traditional
Appreciating the authenticity of “original” we try our absolute best to preserve as much as we can however, there are sometimes such things as basket cases where the only thing salvageable is the frame. We glue loose leather, condition it, adhere canvas to the back when it is worn so thin that you could read the newspaper through it. We rebuild frames adding custom corner blocks and gussets along with new glue, giving new life to these old chairs. Sometimes these so-called basket cases are just that but they offer the correct scale and appearance without designing one from scratch. These chairs get the same procedures as above but we add all new hand tied springs, new cotton and horsehair padding and ultimately new high quality leather hides, which give these chairs the character, they once had.Remaining true to form, our first choices are usually in the brown and tan range of color as most survivors are within this spectrum. Occasionally we happen to think outside the box; we have resurrected these chairs in faux croc, lipstick red lambskin, navy blue leather hides, and a few in opulent mohair.
