Description

This chair sold for $840 through iNVISeDGE in 2007. In 2019 (when this listing was written) I’d price the exact same chair at around $1095. This particular Featherston design is very hard to get. UPDATE (in 2023) when this listing was published online- I’d price this exact same chair at around $1400 – $1500 these days.

Provenance and Background Info

I could no longer find the description I wrote at the time for this chair so wrote a description in 2019 when this item was uploaded to my website. Time-sensitive information will change slightly over the years. 

A GENUINE and fully ORIGINAL VINTAGE Contour chair designed by Grant Featherston in the mid-1950’s. I’m not sure of the design number of this one. It looks like the A310 but without armrests. It’s a beaut side chair or could even be a contour dining chair. This design is rare- I can’t find many photos of it online. The value of this particular chair is tied up in it’s historical appeal and the fact it’s fully original. Of course it looks a little worse for wear these days- everything does after 70 years! If you want a perfect “vintage” chair buy one of those God-ugly things coming out of China. I’m not saying that God is ugly here. God is the most supreme thing that exists. What I’m saying is that the God-ugly replicas are the “most supremely-ugly thing” you can possibly put into your home.

You can buy brand-new Feathertson chairs in most shapes these days mass-produced in China (though I haven’t seen this exact design yet). The replica chairs are all about mathematics and profit margins- there is no soul in them and certainly no love in them. It’s all about making as much money as possible at any expense … to our environment and the people (slaves) employed to make them. (In saying that though, most of the construction done in replica “Featherstons” is by machines anyway, which basically removes every human element from the entire “creation” process.) Go to most furniture shops these days and work out the percentage of “human-interaction” any item has had before coming into existence- most items these days would have had close to none! And when you buy a replicas you’re buying a MACHINE-MADE knock-off that cashes in on someone else’s ingenuity, creativity and industry (ie. someone else’s work)! This particular vintage chair has little to do with economics and money-making (which is basic-science really) but is really about the precise opposite … creation … that place from which EVERYTHING originates. This vintage chair was designed by a person who used drawings, plans and prototypes to get the design right. It was HAND-CONSTRUCTED in workshops by PEOPLE in Australia in the 1950’s from real timber using hand-tools. A lot of love and human-focus went into creating this chair.

Let’s now fast-forward 50 years … the replica market comes along and basically destroys all of this type of industry in a matter of a decade- it’s becoming increasingly difficult for any HUMAN industry and ingenuity to survive these days in 2019. (Interestingly I wrote this all in 2019 BEFORE COVID-19! Tessa Furniture has just recently died- an Australian institution that created furniture in Australia for almost 60 years- is DEAD but the majority of Australians don’t even know. What percentage of the Australian population is even aware that Tessa Furniture ever existed?)

Let’s just give all our “creation” to machines in developing countries, shall we! At this rate it will be very soon (probably before I die) that there will be no point to any of us being alive! Let’s just get machines to do everything for us (!) …  let’s do away with human ingenuity, creation, design, crafts-personship, working collaboratively with a common goal in mind … exchanging each other’s strengths and interests. Let’s just get machines to do it all! And whilst our government continues to bicker like children about things that largely don’t matter we can all sit back and watch as Australian small business, Australian medium business, Australian large business, creation from people, Australian handicrafts and the Australian environment continue to destruct and die. And yes it’s bizarre that something like this can come out when I set out to write about the background of one chair! Not many seem to be listening- I’ve got to the point where I feel like all I can do now is whack people across the head with this sentiment! (Sadly though, it will only be the people who don’t need to be whacked across the head with this information who will read this far and THINK about any of what’s come out here today.)

There is MORE death and destruction going on in this world than CREATION, INGENUITY and HUMAN CO-OPERATION and whilst the “DEATH-rate” continues to outweigh the CREATION-rate, our environment, values and human spirit will continue to move towards death. It is a bleak picture to paint I know but it is the truth unfortunately.

I’ve had countless people tell me it’s obscene I’d be asking around $1000 for a chair that shows this much use (both back when I sold it for $840 back in 2007 and today in 2019). I think it’s obscene that most people buy mass-produced Chinese furniture that will end up as landfill in less than a decade- our earth’s resources, plastic packaging and foam pieces used to protect this stuff in transit and who knows what else ends up as landfill so the same cycle can happen all over and again… and again. This is not to mention the carbon emissions spewed out into our air from the machines used to produce this “furniture”, the electricity needed for people to organise getting this stuff overseas via computers and phones, the ships needed to get traverse it over our oceans, the trucks needed to get it into our shops, the electricity needed to power these shops… … the list continues. I end many of my descriptions by writing that investing in vintage furniture is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. It’s not a marketing ploy- it’s the truth.

You don’t have to buy this second-hand 70 year old Featherston Contour chair for $1000. There are millions of amazing second-hand chairs in charity shops you can buy for as little as $10 each (some are even given away free) that have been around for 40, 50 years and more that are in amazing condition and show inspiring ingenious design and construction skill if you’d bother looking.

A Featherston chair like this is so much more than just one chair- this chair is a symbol of how things were, where things are going and the fact that most people are so wrapped up in their own petty little existence to notice any of what has been said here.

When you buy a replica what you’re saying is that it’s okay for someone’s intellectual and creative property to be stolen to make money for a few corporate “fat-cats” and that items we need for our homes should no longer come from the hands and hearts of people- … that this work should be taken off people and given to machines. And when you say it’s obscene for a chair like this to be worth $1000 what you’re saying is that items we need for our homes should not be made by PEOPLE who are living locally doing something they believe in and gives them pleasure. It’s easy to create a more peaceful and happier society- whenever you need anything for yourself or your home invest in businesses run BY PEOPLE who are involved in industries they (and others) enjoy!

Grant Featherston is the most famous furniture designer this country has seen (and probably ever will see). His prolific career started in the 1940’s and he was still designing as late as 1979 when he released The Garden Lounge. His most productive and successful period was the early 1950’s when these Contour chairs were released. By 1955 Featherston’s design output and success had already surpassed virtually every Australian designer who had ever come before him. Featherston Contour chairs were shown in almost every issue of “Architecture and Arts” and “Home Beautiful” magazine through the 1950’s and into the early 60’s. Grant and his wife Mary, tried to put themselves in the situation of the potential user asking themselves, ‘what is the proposed design really for?’ and ‘what techniques and materials need to be employed by the maker?’ They believed that if both the function and manufacturer were painstakingly considered the resulting design would automatically be aesthetically pleasing. (The above statement was adapted from a conversation with Mary and Grant Featherston in 1975- contained in Terence Lane’s, Featherston Chairs by the National Gallery of Victoria.)

The above words epitomize why Featherston was so successful. Form and function meld together in this chair on offer so it not only looks great but is comfortable and has stood the test of time. Featherston pieces were well-built- the seat sections of the contour series consisted of interlocking plywood pieces that allowed individual pieces to move slightly to accommodate bodyweight. I have never seen the seat section of a Featherston chair broken- this is despite the fact they are now around 70 years old. Featherston chairs have obvious investment appeal and are currently the best known and most popular furniture investment furniture piece in this country. They have steadily increased in value since the early 1990’s. Contour lounge chairs could be purchased for as little as $300 in the mid-1990’s- those same chairs are now valued at $6000 and are still rising in value.

The Featherston Contour chair in this listing is a great investment because it can be used and enjoyed as it is while it becomes more valued. The chair is FULLY ORIGINAL including the vinyl- the vinyl is very durable so it will be easy to keep looking good. The production of most modern furniture has little or no regard to our environment and the people employed to produce it. This 1950’s vintage piece has not only survived about 70 years, it has thrived and I can’t see any reason why it won’t last another 60. There are very few better ways to invest in your home and reduce landfill.

19 05?