19/02/2026
This beautiful Victorian library chair definitely had a story to tell me as I restored it. Its last home had been in a small coft in the north of Scotland, not necessarily somewhere you would expect to find a solid mahogany carved gentlemens chair.
The new owners guess it might have found it's way to Shetland on a fishing boat in the early 1900s. From the things I found stripping it down I know the previous owner was a left handed, cat owner who supported animal chaities and spent £20.68 on fuel one day in April 1998. He also lost his much used pen knife down the side of the chair one day, which I imagine didn't please him. At some point the seat had developed a sag from a broken spring some someone enterprising stuffed some old knitwear in the hole and nailed some planks of wood to the base. Not conventional but it did the job.
After the first complete refurb in its long life, it is now on its way back to Shetland where it will hopefully spend many, many more happy years being the focus of family life in its owners living room.
This one was a challenge and a joy, but definitely a chair I wont forget in a hurry.
Thanks to for the fabric and in Shawlands for the coffee breaks.
