One of the rarest items of furniture ever to be seen: an miniature (or sample) leather Chesterfield sofa dating to early to mid 20th century. By far the majority of miniature furniture started life as a travelling salesman’s sample. In essence they are the identical twin of their larger grown up counterparts, being made by the cabinet makers back at the workshop, in everything but size. The idea behind this being of course that a salesman could be gone for many weeks from the workshop accumulating orders for furniture from all over the country to be constructed upon his return. However, how could somebody possibly be expected to commit to spending a large sum of money on something which hadn’t even been made yet and they could only see a sketch of in a salesman’s book? The answer is of course, sample furniture. A workshop would produce as many different items as possible in miniature size using the exact same construction techniques, timbers and workmanship. They would then go on each salesman’s cart and off they would go to demonstrate the skill and workmanship their company was capable of and of course, importantly, the quality of the goods on offer. This is normally how you can tell if something would have been made for this purpose, basically it is of very good quality and is made to the highest standard. Today this is a fantastic conversation piece, perhaps even a doggy bed or a sofa for a child’s room.

Condition: A small tear or scratch to the left hand “shoulder“ of the sofa but has not gone through the leather (please refer to last photograph), otherwise good vintage condition

Dimensions: 112cm wide, 58cm deep, 50cm high