19th C. English Georgian Leather Wingback Chair

Deep button-tufting across the back and seat, wide wings, straight tapered legs joined by a turned stretcher. The frame is English Georgian, dating to the early 1820s, though the leather is later, reupholstered around the 1940s in a tobacco brown that's worn soft and cracked at the arms. A club-height library chair, built for regular use.

The wingback form developed in England in the early 18th century, the projecting side panels originally meant to shield a seated occupant from drafts and the heat of an open fire, a practical function that outlasted its original purpose and became a defining silhouette of English domestic furniture. By the Georgian period, wingback chairs had settled into their now-familiar library and study role, upholstered rather than caned, and built low and deep enough for long reading. Reupholstering a frame this age in leather decades after its construction, as happened here in the 1940s, was standard practice rather than a compromise. Frames were expected to outlast several rounds of covering.

Style: English Georgian
Materials & Techniques: Carved wood frame, tobacco leather upholstery, deep button tufting, nailhead trim
Place of Origin: England
Period: Frame c. 1820; leather reupholstered c. 1940s