Description

LOCATION- I personally own this ensemble.

LIDCOMBE, Sydney in a very secure (and GREAT!) storage centre.

(ANGEL Storage – Lidcombe).

Our listed price is an OFFERS OVER price for ONE chair (the chair with the timber that’s been bleached on one side from exposure to UV over approx 40 years.

Offers over $3,450 for BOTH chairs will be considered more favourably.

Offers over $4,100 for BOTH chairs and the very rare (matching) footstool will be given precedence over any other offer. RARE is a complete understatement, particularly in these tones- we are keen to keep all 3 pieces together (but certainly would entertain strong OFFERS for any one of these 3 pieces). We have sold similar Tessa DELMONT chairs for over $2,000 each and a few T21 / Delmont footstools for $1,000 now.

I think this is the best Tessa T21 suite we’ve had for about 3.5 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 the timber hasn’t been stained either. I prefer Tessa T21 / Delmont timber to be lighter in colour. Some “timber” items coming out of China are now being fabricated out of fucking RESIN! I like the UV exposure on one side. This means you can play with how you present this suite in your space.

The footstool matches the chair that has one side that is darker (due to UV exposure).

This timber is obviously real- you can’t fake this authentic VINTAGE look. This suite is about 40 years old now. These tones were mainly sold by Tessa in the early-1980’s. (The leather tones help to date this very rare suite.) 

Delivery Australia-wide is possible. Approximately $300 to get this full suite to Melbourne or Brisbane.   

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

This particular footstool is also VERY RARE because it’s actually slanted. This is how many EUROPEAN footstools were designed back in 1560’s to approx 1980. This facilitates better ergonomics and comfort for lying back in this (high) back swivel lounge chair. You won’t come across another suite like this ever again. I get the impression that the owner actually altered the footstool purposely so it actually did this. Maybe he had a bad back (like me!). I’ve since lost his phone number (actually I never got his number in the first place). It was full written communication for this buying transaction for me- I never set eyes on him. (Even though I usually REFUSE POINT BLANK to do business this way. (I need an opportunity for my intuition to “talk” to me about my potential trading partner).

In the last approx 2 years, I’ve had THREE past iNVISeDGE customers express interest in a set like this. I directed them all to the Tessa T21 suite I sold about 1.5 years back but EVERY SINGLE ONE insisted that they didn’t want Tessa T21’s. They would ONLY advance on a Tessa DELMONT suite (just like this) in these tones. I’ll have to dig out their phone numbers and call each when I get a chance. (phew! – running a small business like this is near impossible – double-phew!! :+)

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 15-20 years- DON’T BE DECEIVED!

VINTAGE 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 FOOTSTOOL) retailed new for about $13,000 in 2019 just before Tessa went out of business back in 2019.

iNVISeDGE price- OFFERS OVER $4,100 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 absolutely 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 AT ALL!

Incredible condition! Incredibly RARE suite. Stunning in these incredible tones! The timber is also incredibly beautiful.

The other thing that I love about this particular suite is that the leather is two different tones. Whilst I was giving the leather a quick wipe down and condition I did NOT notice it. (And I have terrible OCD too!!!) It was only when I set up this suite for photography that I noticed it. Whilst I was photographing this suite I yelled out- “F&%*ING HELL!” (With regards to this slight differing leather tone). Now, 6 months later I LOVE this! It signifies that the owner loved their chair so much they ordered a matching chair and footstool from Tessa quite some time later.

The VINTAGE Tessa Delmonts that I sold in 2020 or 2021 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. But I was wrong!!! 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 this fast-paced, “fast-food mentality” world.

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 25 years (admittedly that’s also partly because I sold ALL my items through ebay for the first 16 – 17 years so I was helping to build ebay’s “brand”- never my own).

This furniture is called the Tessa Delmont (it is technically not called the Tessa T21). Even though it is pretty-much identical to the Tessa T21. (The Delmont is a later derivative.)

PRICING of this suite proved impossible for 6 months (so I’ve now been paying for storing of this suite in expensive SYDNEY for about 7 months now. I just couldn’t come to a decision about price. This is how I worked it all out in the end.

VALUE in 2019 when NEW = approx $13,500

LESS “penalty” for the being a being vintage = subtract about half retail NEW

= $7,000

LESS timber colouring of one chair being 2 tones = subtract $150

LESS two different leather colours = subtract $200

LESS footstool for being “unusual” and having a dark timber base = $350

= $5,800

ADD inflation 2019 to 2026 = plus $400

ADD interesting and authentic VINTAGE character = plus $300

= $6,500

SUBRACT current fuel crisis and being in a recession (although our current government would never admit this! :+) = subtract $1,500

= $5,000

BARGAIN price to encourage buyers to BUY RIGHT NOW so I don’t have to continue paying for extra Sydney storage!

OFFERS OVER – $4,100 for all 3 pieces.

Background Info and Provenance

(This section about Tessa T21 was written in 2020 with some adaptions made over subsequent years. The desirability of Tessa T21s in 2026 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 the iNVISeDGE 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 … but after sitting in a Tessa T21 for the first time I didn’t want to ever get out of it! 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 OFFERS OVER pricing. Values have started to plateau now but the interest remains exactly the same. In 2026, my Tessa T21 listings get more hits in iNVISeDGE than ANYTHING else I list.

I think the RARE beige / light-camel-coloured leather here looks amazing on the Tessa Delmont. This is a bold design- this lighter coloured leather pares it back. This suite is nowhere near as imposing as Delmonts in 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 it- it’s NOT the cheaper leather we see around today. The suite has various labels on the underside of the cushions that 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 sorry 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 here because the furniture is VINTAGE.

Today in 2026, I believe this design- the T21 Delmont 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 just before Tessa went under in 2019 (in FULL-GRAIN leather … DELMONT furniture was way more expensive than the standard Tessa T21 too). 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. Just look at them!

Mind-blowing really! No guessing the quality on offer (including this 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.

2605, 2505 and 2012.4