Description

The listed price is an OFFERS OVER price for ONE chair. Offers over $3,595 for BOTH chairs will be considered more favourably. Offers over $4,495 for BOTH chairs and the rare (matching) footstool will be given precedence over any other offer. A REALLY rare set in these tones- we are keen to keep all 3 pieces together. We have sold similar T21 chairs for $2,000 each and a few footstools for $1,000. I think this is the best Tessa T21 suite we’ve had for about 4 years. LOVE these tones!

I personally also love the differing tones of the different timber pieces in this set. It just verifies that this is REAL timber and that it hasn’t been stained either. I prefer timber to be lighter in colour. Some “timber” items coming out of China are now being fabricated out of RESIN! This timber is obviously real- you can’t fake this authentic look. 

Delivery Australia-wide is possible. Approximately $260 to get this full suite to Sydney.   

THE FOOTSTOOLS ARE VERY RARE AND VERY SOUGHT-AFTER (particularly since Tessa went out of business in 2019).

This Tessa Executive / Tessa T21 suite is being sold UNDER CONSIGNMENT out of GEELONG by a regular iNVISeDGE seller. iNVISeDGE has been employed by our vendor to handle all aspects of the sale on her behalf. I travelled to Geelong to take these photos. I also sanded back and refinished the timber armrests and cleaned up the leather, plus I also photographed the suite- I’m very familiar with what’s on offer.

This is FULL-GRAIN vintage leather- the real deal. Tessa sometimes used the shitty TOP-GRAIN leather after the mid-1990’s until around 2010 (they closed in 2019 because they couldn’t compete with China anymore unfortunately). Top-Grain leather is NOT TOP-GRADE leather- it’s the inferior THIN modern-day leather that usually deteriorates within 10-20 years- don’t be deceived. FULL-GRAIN leather is the best leather you can get.

The investment appeal of this suite is a NO-BRAINER. This FULL suite (PAIR of CHAIRS and the FOOTSTOOL) retailed new for about $10,500 in 2019 just before Tessa went out of business. iNVISeDGE price- OFFERS over $4,495 for the FULL 3-piece suite. This suite was purchased new in the early-1980’s.

The thing that fascinates and excites me so much here is that my vendor (who paid for a small fortune for this) has got virtually 40 years of use out of their AUSTRALIAN-MADE furniture but now it’s ready to passed on to another loving home with no need for restoration! (That to me is close to a miracle in today’s world.) There’s not much to show for about 40 YEARS OF USE!

I was also excited after I took a sneak peak under the dust-covers (under the chairs). Contrary to what I previously thought, it was Tessa THEMSELVES who wedged a THICK, BIG quality piece of cushioning between the steel substructure of the chair and the webbing! This effectively means the webbing is supported so the webbing can’t sag and will never need to be replaced. (I’m pretty sure over time Tessa stopped doing this though- to compete with China as there was more cost to do it.) The VINTAGE Tessa Delmonts I recently sold had the dustcovers removed. I stated in that listing that the thick piece of cushioning must have been added by the owner at some stage. Tessa did it themselves when the chairs were first made so their buyers never had to worry about re-webbing Tessa T21 chairs. That is forward-thinking and THAT, is what it used to be all about! Look after your customers and they will talk favourably about your business … that’s how it USED TO BE. It used to be all about word-of-mouth. Somewhere along the way, this sentiment has pretty-much been lost. In our “modern world” we don’t know WHO made virtually anything anymore! These days virtually non-one talks about the businesses they like to support. Virtually none of my customers have talked about iNVISeDGE over the past 24 years (admittedly that’s also partly because I sold my items through ebay for the first 16 – 17 years so I was helping to build ebay’s “brand”- not my own).

This furniture can be called the Tessa Executive chair or the Tessa T21- both are correct.

Background Info and Provenance

(This section about Tessa T21 was written in 2020 with some adaptions made for these pieces on offer. The desirability of Tessa T21’s in 2025 is at least the same as what’s stated below).

This is arguably the most sought-after chair design to ever come out of Australia. The Contour range by Grant Featherston is probably the most collectable in terms of dollar-value; this one, the T21 / Executive swivel chair, released by Tessa in the early 1970’s, is easily the most asked-for vintage chair through our website. When I experienced sitting in a Tessa T21 swivel for the first time, I instantly knew why so many people ask me to buy them. The quality just jumps out at you but it’s the comfort that everyone is after! … OMG … after sitting in a Tessa T21 for the first time I didn’t want to ever get up! During lock-downs (March 2020 and through 2021) I had phone calls from people almost on a daily basis asking for T21 swivel chairs or suites. In 2021, my listings for Tessa T21 furniture got record interest and various offers well above my reserve prices. Prices have started to plateau but the interest remains the same. In 2025, my Tessa T21 listings get more hits on my website than anything else I list.

I think this RARE beige / camel-coloured leather here looks amazing on this design. This is a bold design- this lighter coloured leather pares it back. This suite is nowhere near as imposing as black or dark-brown T21’s. I can even picture this suite in a small nook (or even in front of a small fireplace). The footprint of these chairs is not big but visually these chairs can normally be quite imposing. This lighter-coloured suite has a more “Scandinavian” feel- it’s not so bold. This suite is upholstered in 100% FULL-GRAIN BOVINE LEATHER- the real deal. I wrote a blog in 2021 describing the differences between Top-Grain and Full-Grain leather- use the SEARCH box and type in “Howe Leather Brochure” to find this blog /information.

You’ll sometimes see second-hand Tessa suites where the leather has completely ripped at the seams or cracked all the way through within 10 or 20 years of use- this is always MODERN Top-Grain Leather. The leather here is VINTAGE (from the 1980’s) with labels to verify this- it’s NOT the cheaper leather we see around today. The suite has various labels on the underside of the cushions to substantiate this.

After a 50-year stint in the Australian Marketplace, making virtually ALL their furniture in AUSTRALIA, Tessa Furniture died in 2019. It’s a sad state of affairs when an Australian business can no longer do what they do so well because of cheap imports destined to end up as landfill. And this is the very reason why Tessa eventually died. Their designs are so well-made that vintage second-hand Tessa pieces ended up becoming more sought-after than new Tessa Furniture. And who can blame people going straight to the second-hand market for designs such as this? The QUALITY of this design is so exceptional that second-hand pieces (in quality upholstery / leather) often still look basically new after 10, 20, 30, 40 … and even 50 years of use. In this listing you’re getting chairs that present extremely well but there’s REAL investment appeal on offer because the furniture is VINTAGE.

Today in 2025, I believe this design- the T21 swivel chair by Tessa- is the best investment in the furniture marketplace. People are always asking for the best T21 pieces, they are NO LONGER in production so more people will hang onto theirs for a lifetime of enjoyment. Less and less will be coming onto the secondary market. Tessa T21 chairs retailed NEW for about $4,400 EACH (in FULL-GRAIN leather) just before Tessa went under in 2019- at this RESERVE price (not much more than ONE THIRD retail) it should be obvious to anybody that the only way the value of these chairs can go … is way up.

This pair of chairs is about 40 years old and look at them! Just mind-blowing really! No guessing the quality on offer (including the leather). After much of the world’s furniture ends up as landfill, these chairs will be passed onto another user and eventually a new generation. Now that Tessa Furniture is not made anymore, I can’t see any reason why these chairs (made in AUSTRALIA) won’t slowly increase to the value they were selling for new (ie. $4,400 EACH). There’s no better way I can think of to invest in your home, the future of our environment and local community.

2505 and 2012.4