I went back to the Sunbury Antiques Fair at Kempton Race Course over the Easter break. I went with a friend looking for centre pieces for her wedding next year and was almost sure I wouldn’t buy anything for myself (famous last words..).
We spent a lovely sunny morning looking at various zinc baths to act as drinks coolers and chunky slivers of Acacia roots that could work as platters. Eventually we found a great selection of old, glass medicine bottles with labels like poison, lung tonic and other great archaic remedies.
As we walked around, I saw a couple of chairs that caught my eye but each one was either too damaged or too expensive for the condition it was in. The only things I did buy were a little pot of highly pigmented gold paint for a chair I’m working on, and a fine brush.
It was only as we were leaving that I spotted a more unusual piece. I had a quick look at it and discovered it had two cracks through the arm rest. The crack followed the grain of the wood and was a clean break so I thought it would probably not be too bad to fix. I spoke to the vendor and found out he had brought it in Spain, although it could have originally come from France. It had a sprung seat and was stuffed with a mixture of grass and horsehair. I still haven’t identified the wood, it must be a softwood as the frame is incredibly light but beyond that I have no idea. I ended up buying this great little chair at cost, as the vendor was originally intending on getting it reupholstered before selling it on, but had run out of time.
Now I have 5 ongoing projects in my very little house and I’m going to have to think about finding some workshop space!