Thursday, August 13, 2009

Reader Question: What is Bobbin Furniture?

A few months ago, a reader asked me a very good question. What are these bobbin chairs that I keep referring to and praising? Originating mainly in the 1800's in England, the furniture ornamentation changed to a lighter look with bobbin or spool ornament. Bobbin furniture is mostly antiques and you can find a lot of beautiful ones on 1st Dibs and some less expensive ones on Ebay HERE, for example.

This gorgeous corner bobbin chair is one that I found on 1st Dibs from Yew Tree Antiques; one of my favorite antiques stores. A corner bobbin chair is quite rare.

These dining chairs are especially pretty as you can see the finish is worn down revealing the wood. By Victoria Hagan (her house on the Hamptons!)

Isn't this painted bobbin bed AMAZING? The answer is yes. By James Michael Howard.

The beauty of these chairs is that you can see their framework and they are still quite comfortable. The room by Mollie Johnson is very elegant yet very inviting.

Dan Marty, who has his own showroom, sells bobbin chairs as well! I love the upholstery on these. As a side note, how gorgeous is the color of these walls?

In searching I noticed that Martha Stewart also makes a bobbin chair HERE. Can you blame me for getting excited when a designer uses a bobbin chair in their work? They are so pretty and versatile. Thanks for the great questions--keep them coming!


Alicia B.

4 comments:

Beaman the Interiors Chap said...

They are certainly great items of furniture. I like how you've given a bit of the history to the pictures as well.

I agree with you too about the colour of the walls in that dining room photo. Quite exquisite.

CLAIRE WATKINS, ASID ALLIED said...

Alicia- this was awesome timing. I had just gone to visit an antiques dealer here in ATL and had seen lots of "Bobbin furniture", wouldn't have known what to call it w/o reading your post.!

Down Pillow said...

Thanks for the tutorial :) I actually have a bed almost identical to the one you feature here - it's still in the original dark wood finish.

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