We’ve been pleased to have the opportunity to assist one of our better clients in putting together a collection of Georgian seating furniture. An avid collector of English antiques and nearing the end of his business career, he has sought to replace reproduction pieces with the same models, but 18th century.
Amongst some collectors, the received wisdom is that period seating furniture is one or both of the following- fragile, and uncomfortable. I must say that we subscribed to these fallacies ourselves until we determined, and handling many score pieces over the years might teach one a thing or two, seating furniture is like any other class of goods- some survive in good condition, and some do not. Moreover, what makes for something particularly worthwhile is not just the ‘show’ frame, but the underframe, typically of softer wood, that can, with generations of upholstery tacks, be in deplorable condition. For any collector, and this is important, it is not what you see but the underframe that you don’t see that makes for comfortable and serviceable period seating furniture.
When discussing the facets of collecting this manner of goods with our seating collector client, we used for our exemplar a wonderful large mid 18th century sofa we had sold a couple of years ago. Retentive as we are, we had photographed the piece extensively with the cover stripped off, to make manifest to any prospective purchaser, or an antiques show vetting committee, the original condition of the frame. Interestingly, we were so pleased with the condition of the piece with the cover taken off, we consequently had the sofa displayed in our galleries in this shape for a number of weeks. Keith and I would blithely describe the virtues of the piece and couldn’t understand that, far from sharing our enthusiasm, a fair number of visitors actually averted their gaze. What became clear to us is that seeing the naked frame for most people is the equivalent of interrupting the embalmer at work- one would rather not be too aware of the process, preferring to see, as it were, the finished product once it emerges from the back room.