The Occasional Monkey Chair
I found this little chair discarded outside someone’s house just off Gloucester Road in Bristol. I was walking back from St Werburghs with a friend when I just about tripped over it.
This is the chair as found. The small size but masculine look of the chair led me to believe that it could have been a conservatory chair and that it’s small size facilitated its being taken to the garden in order to ‘take the air’, as was the fashion of the day. And certainly, if you look up ‘Arts & Crafts Reclining Conservatory Chair’ on google images you’ll see lots of chairs simlar to this one.
The Arts & Crafts period is from 1880 to 1920 but I would hazard a guess that this chair is more likely to be nearer 1920. The oak wood, square shape and simple fashioning of the front legs are an Arts & Crafts giveaway.
The chair had a wobbly frame and decaying upholstery. The sprung base was in the original brown velvet fabric and the back was made from brown Buckram (the same as book binding material). The upholstery decay was mainly the velvet, hessian and horsehair stuffing which had become torn and brittle and unable to keep its shape. The springs and hardwear were fine.
I took the base and the back off the chair frame right down to the constituent wooden frames and box spring unit.
The chair frame was made good, sanded, primed and painted in Farrow & Ball Old White to give it a more contemporary feel. The metal hinges where de-rusted, polished and sealled.
Here’s the chair in its bare bones being put back together.
The spring base unit was showing signs of age at the front so I turned it around in the base frame so that the slightly lower side now sits at the back of the chair and the good side can take the strain at the front.
In line with my philosophy of reuse and recycle, I salvaged what I could from the original upholstery and utilised the original felting as the base pad from which to build up the new seat.
I added new layers of felting and soft lambswool over the old and topped with fire resistant barrier fabric.
The idea of a 1920’s gin or tea on the lawn just made me think of our colonial past and when I saw this fabric I knew it was just right.
The Exotic Monkey Fabric is 100% French Linen so its eco credentials are exemplary too. The manufacturing of Linen is least damaging of all fabrics because it uses a natural process (no chemicals), virtually no water and the end product is biodegradable too.
The back of the chair is constructed using upholstery webbing from top to bottom and weaved from left to right to give a firm foundation for the upholstery overlays. Laid over the webbing are layers of felt, lambs wool and finally fire retardant barrier fabric and the two outer sandwiches of the Linen.
The back construction gives a firm and comfortable feel.
The base of the unit pulls forward on runners so that the back reclines. I have repaired the runners and waxed them so that the recline runs smoothly.
This little Arts & Crafts 1910/1920’s reimagined Occasional Monkey Chair would make an ideal nursing chair, bedroom, conservatory chair or an occasional feature piece.
I hope you have enjoyed its story!
Shona Kitson, Former Glory
