Walnut Arm Chairs by Jens Risom for Jens Risom Design (est. 1954). I found Risom while doing my research for the Grasshopper chair project. Saarinen and Risom both worked for Knoll in the late 1940s and some of their designs make use of very similar methods and materials. In fact, the webbing used on my Grasshopper chair is sold in a kit that is designed for a Risom chair that remains in production today.
Single Chair Before:
Single Chair After:
Pair Before:
Pair After:
I found the first chair (the orange picture above) in so/so condition. The frame had the expected marks and was in need of a simple sand and reseal job. The cushion was another story. The upholstery was shot as the cushion beneath it was, no other way to say it, “sat out”. You can see the rips near the edge where your bottom and legs would hit the chair. The materials used in the cushions 60ish years ago will eventually harden and literally crumble. I was unaware if this until I arrived home with my chair and found a nice coating of yellow dust in my truck. As this was a single chair, we decided to get a little aggressive with the new fabric. We kept is “correct” by going with a proper period designer, but we stretched a little and decided on a very Missoni-esk pattern.
I mentioned in an earlier post that two other chairs became “bridge” pieces because I found another set. The next two of these chairs made that decision for me. I was not looking, but came upon two more of these chairs a few months after I found the first. These are the green chairs you see in the photos. Like the orange chair, these chairs needed some fairly simple restoration work on the frames but the cushions were done-zo. These changed the game – no longer was this a one off chair, I had a set going. We decided to go with a relatively conservative fabric and to replace the other brown chairs with these two when finished.
I bought the orange chair for $150, and have spend another ~$500 on materials and refinishing. The pair of green chairs cost me $500 (talked her down from $800 based on the orange chair comp, but also realizing that a pair has more value than a single), and I have spend another ~$1,000 on materials and refinishing. In all, I am into these three chairs for ~$2,150 and few hours of manual labor. I found one more of these during my research – a model that looks to need some of the same work on the frame that mine needed and it also looks to need new fabric as the existing has stains and was sewn on with a period in-correct double-piping seem. The seller is a prominent dealer in New England and he wants $2,300 for his chair. He told me he has been looking for another to make this a pair for some time without luck, and that he could easily charge more per chair for a pair. Let’s conservatively assume that a pair gets a 25% premium per chair…that gets me a mark to “market” value for my pair of $5,750, for the single of $2,300, and all in $8,050. Another nice return on some found gems.
Since the pair replaced another set, I cannot part with them. The single might be something we can discuss if you have interest. Ping me on the blog.
More on Risom if you are interested. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jens_Risom
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