Meet the Maker: The story behind our Gertrude chair
As furniture and design experts, we’re always on the lookout for inspirational styles and shapes. When we stumbled across a stunning nineteenth-century French walnut Napoleon III armchair, we were completely smitten and couldn’t resist the idea of redeveloping and recreating this stunning antique design.
The beautiful original chair is dated from 1880 and was crafted from walnut and stuffed with traditional horsehair filling. To bring this piece into the twenty-first century (and to make it super comfortable) we used steel springs with a fibre-topped foam fixed seat cushion.
The stunning and shapely legs on the original chair were a real statement feature that we wanted to translate into the new design of the Gertrude. Sticking closely to the originals and using them as our guide, our woodturners in Long Eaton recreated the iconic legs from solid Beech hardwood. Like all our beautiful pieces, they can be stained to your desired effect, whether you prefer natural, chestnut, walnut or ebony.
Gertrude is a traditional style, highback chair that is a proud achievement of our product development team; bringing antique style furniture into the twenty-first century. We think it looks beautiful as a standalone piece, perfect for bedrooms or hallways, and would make a statement as a pair in your living room. Thanks to its smooth back and seat cushion, it can easily be upholstered in patterned fabric, as well as plain, giving you various options for keeping it in the traditional style, or for making it a more contemporary-looking piece.
