JM’s Throne was an extraordinary piece of furniture that my client picked up at an auction from an old country house. It took me over 1,000 painstaking hours to restore it.

It was covered in an exceptional quality of silk velvet which had long since rotted, hence the dishevelled appearance. An expert upholsterer said that to get that quality of velvet you’d be looking at £500 per metre and a 3-year wait to obtain it.

Some progress photographs

Woodwork after cleaning and polishing

Under chair arm scroll

The webbing goes onto the Throne back

The hessian goes onto the back; hair goes onto the seat

Original hair from the chair washed and re-used

The hair is contained within linen scrim

Here’s the stitched well to contain the down cushion

Stitched well to contain feather cushion

The completed Throne

The chair is fully traditionally upholstered with a sprung seat and a down cushion offering exceptional comfort. I was able to launder and re-use the original hair (plus a bit of new hair). There were over 1,500 decorative nails, each one individually applied – it’s so difficult to make them look like a straight line.

Detail of the decorative nailing on the corner of the chair

Two finishing touches for the client

The first, underneath…

Stenhouse and Savage – the original underside, maker’s mark on bottom cloth

Original maker’s mark retained and framed in satin on new bottom cloth

The second, on top…