Armchair

Chairs and sofas by Howard & Sons are a pricey niche market these days, largely immune to the varying fortunes of the wider market for Victorian and Edwardian furniture.

The countless designs for furniture and decorative arts created by Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, who were known as Napoleon’s architects, not only found favour with the French emperor but also had an enduring influence on cabinetmakers throughout Europe.

Determining when in the past seven decades a genuine Eames classic was made is not an exact science

A world away from the flat-pack furniture so familiar today, a Mid-century armchair has sold for what is believed to be a record price for IKEA.

Given that most antique furniture at auction tends to be good value only for the buyer these days, one can perhaps understand why it occasionally does not always receive the attention it once merited from auctioneers and valuers. As a result, occasionally a special item slips through.

A sale of design and 20th century decorative arts to be staged by Aguttes on March 30 spans items from the Art Nouveau era through to the latter decades of the 20th century.

Despite having no maker’s mark, the design and quality of this c.1930 oak reclining book table armchair, below, proclaimed Ambrose Heal.

Although now known as Gainsborough chairs, generous walnut and upholstered armchairs were often referred to by contemporaries as ‘French’ chairs, as the most elaborate styles were based on French rococo.

Thousands of items are available to buy from dealers online. Here we pick out one that caught our eye this week.

This Aesthetic movement X-frame armchair took £11,000 against an estimate of just £100-150 at Lawrences of Crewkerne.

Throughout the furniture depression, late Victorian and Edwardian chairs and sofas produced by the London firm of upholsterers Howard & Sons maintained their prices.

Upholstered Victorian armchairs not being the most in-demand of auction lots at present, the £100-150 estimate of a pair offered at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19.5% buyer’s premium) did not seem overly pessimistic.

Two pieces of seating furniture which no early 20th century wealthy middle-class home would have lacked went comfortably over estimates at sales from Hampshire to Yorkshire in May.

A rare ebonised framed armchair after the original design by Edward William Godwin (1833-86) sold for £44,000 (plus 18% premium) at Moore Allen & Innocent in Cirencester on April 21.