By Howard Chairs Ltd., Howard & Sons, Howard and Sons
Located in West Sussex, Pulborough
We are delighted to offer for sale this very fine, fully restored Howard & Son’s Berners Street London, large Baring sofa upholstered with new Fully Aniline cattle hide leather with hand carved Claw & Ball feet
This is pretty much the finest sofa ever made, Howard & Son’s are known as simply put the makers of the most comfortable sofas in the world. This is a highly collectable Baring model, it has an extra deep seat that you can comfortably curl your legs up on and then some. The inside back left leg is stamped with the serial numbered Howard & Son's LTD Berners street
This sofa has been on a journey of restoration, it came to me with all the fabric removed and ready for reupholstery, the feathers had all sagged and lost their plumpness so the first thing was to have the backs and sides refilled with down feathers, the sofa then went to my French polisher to have the woodwork washed back and traditionally French polished from the ground up, the piece then went back to the upholsterers to be fully upholstered, I have used a very fine Italian Cattle Hide leather, this is fully aniline leather which is upholstered plain, with this type of leather you can see the natural grain and patina of the hide for a more authentic Victorian look, we then had new feather filled seat cushions made and it was off to the leather polishers, to achieve this colour the piece had to be hand dyed six times, antiqued, sealed and then finally waxed down
This is the finest quality and condition Howard & Son's sofa for sale anywhere in the world today bar none.
Dimensions
Height:- 86.5cm
Width:- 194.5cm
Depth:- 105cm
Seat height:- 58.5cm
Please note all measurements are taken at the widest point.
A History of Howard and Sons
The name of Howard and Sons is probably one of the best known and highly sought after names in Upholstered furniture. Over the next few paragraphs I will do my best to give you a brief history of the company.
The company was started by John Howard in 1820 trading from 24 Leman St, London as a Cabinet Maker. Over the next 25 years they would make several changes of premises within the Whitechapel area. First to 27 Great Alie St (Now just Alie St) before moving a short distance to 34 Great Alie St.
In 1844 the company made its first venture into upholstered furniture by opening a showroom/workshop at 36 Red lion St. This was also to be a big move towards what would be their next and most famous location. In 1848 they moved to a new address much more accustomed with the name; Berners St. London as “Cabinet Maker, Upholsterer and Decorator” under the name John Howard and Sons.
The business seemed to boom at this location with workshops opening up at Tottenham St, Charlotte Mews and Fitzroy Sq and an expansion to a second Berners St building in 1853. In 1869 the company consolidated its many workshops into the one building on Cleveland St.
By 1872 the company was occupying 25, 26 and 27 Berners St. These adresses would remain unchanged until 1935. During this period they became a limited company in 1899 and won the first of their Royal warrants in 1901. In 1935 the the well established decorators Lenygon and Morant appear to take over the name with the business address being given as 31 Old Burlington St (Lenygon and Morants...
Category
19th Century English Victorian Antique Howard and Sons Seating
