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The Chesterfield sofa is a British design icon that has traversed centuries. It is the essence of style, tradition, and elegance and still fits gracefully into homes, clubs, and hotel lobbies around the World.
Theories abound about the history and the origin of the Chesterfield, and unfortunately none of the stories can be definitively confirmed. We do know however, the earliest documented Chesterfield was in the late 1700s, making this style more than 250 years old.
One of the legends is that the 4th Earl of Chesterfield – Lord Philip Stanhope commissioned it, which would explain the name if nothing else. Being quite firm, without much padding and shallow set buttoning, the first Chesterfields did not encourage sitting for long periods of time but were said to prevent wrinkling of men’s trousers.
On his deathbed, his godson, Solomon Dayrolles visited him, and he asked his servant to “give Mr Dayrolles a chair”. His servant took him quite literally and sent him away with an elegant, leather-covered buttoned sofa” and perhaps that is how it was exposed to more people and the journey began.
About, 100 years later, Queen Victoria ushered in a revised version which combined style, elegance, and a new level of comfort. She had the buttons set deeper and added more horsehair for a plusher seat. An illustration from 1857, shows two tartan-covered Chesterfields in her recently renovated sitting room at Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
As the British Empire expanded, the Chesterfield sofa often went along as a reassuring reminder of home – reaching across the globe to India, Canada, South Africa and Australia. In fact, the Canadians still call any sofa a “Chesterfield”.
The famous Austrian psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud was also a notable fan, having his patients lie on a Chesterfield for their sessions. His celebrated grandson, the artist Lucien Freud, often paints his subjects on or in front of a Chesterfield in his paintings – maybe as a nod to his grandfather?
Over the years, the comfort and structure of Chesterfields have continued to improve, our version is a masterful reproduction of the classic Chesterfield but has been given a modern twist with beautiful natural coloured 100% linen upholstery. It still retains the traditional deep buttoning, hammered brass studs, and rolled arms which are the same height as the back, that made the Chesterfield famous. Instead of buttoning on the seat, ours has two very luxurious, and well-padded seat cushions.
The Chesterfield has travelled the centuries and looked equally at home in city and country homes, castles, clubs and hotel lobbies and could be the right choice for your living room. You’ll have an enduring piece of history in your home.
