1908 couch find

[phil]

I just got this antique house.
The owner bought it from an antique dealer in the 80’s it had been recovered.
It comes with a neat history it’s from the empress hotel in Victoria which opened in 1908
There were 4 the same when he bought them from the dealer

He said he contacted the hotel staff with pictures and they confirmed that the style matches that used during those years. So the antique dealers story matched.
It’s extremely heavy. I’ve never lifted a couch so heavy. The frame must be incredibly robust.

The obvious feature is it’s arms the rest is pretty classic
The covering is in bad shape and the seat area needs to come apart the springs are coming up through the upholstery there is some horsehair inside it was covered with Dacron and not great upholstery. it will need upholstery.
It really seems worthwhile though. We wanted a house so I’d rather spend money fixing this than on new stuff.

The empress hotel was built by the Canadian national and the buildings are quite famous it’s centred at the parliament buildings.

it’s an attraction for tourists who go for formal tea. It’s expensive I’ve heard.
I can find out more about the history it’s a national historic site. It’s hosted a lot of famous people so there must be more pictures than what I’ve found

Phil

[Manalto]

It looks great, Phil, and compatible with the chair you recently got. Nice find!

It is not, however, a house.

[phil]

Funny that I made the same typo twice and called it a house instead of a couch or sofa. Maybe if I was a mouse it would look like a house although thankfully I'm not seeing that sort of evidence.

I put my hand down inside and pulled out some horsehair, and it looked like it had cotton over that , and then the upholsterer put a layer of dacron, then the upholstery right over that with no muslin, so the fabric tore and it looks like the springs are penetrating the stuffing now, so the seat will need to come apart.

the webbing doesn't look bad, maybe it can be tightened or replaced. It still has the netting stuff stapled on the bottom, modern work done in the 80's.
It doesn't have any center legs, it seems to have a slightly curved wood beam at the center-point and I think it supports the longer run of webbing mid span.

I'm told the arms are mahogany. I think they put some stain on it because the grain is pretty obscured by the heavy stain.

I can't wait to start into it but I'm refraining because i have enough to do with the Victorian armchair. It's quite big but not disproportionate. I'd like to learn more about the hotel and its history. It was in a reading room, at that time it was a fancy spacious hotel lobby room decorated with things like palm trees and maybe some oriental type decor as was stylish then.

later when the hotel was reconfigured it was sort of a rich people nightclub setting they later built the crystal room and I think that's where they do the fancy english tea ritual now.

he said there was a Canadian maker that made a lot of the furniture for the hotel so they recognized the style. I was trying to make out table legs in one of the pictures and it looked like the style of the legs was repeated in the arms of the chairs and the table in an old pic.

I haven't seen very many nice couches of this era near me. The railroad brought a lot more people and industry. there was a dispute about where the Capital of BC should be so there are a lot of fancy houses near city hall in New Westminster where mayors and officials lived. It was decided that Victoria would be the Capital and it is lower than the rest of the Canadian border. our parliament buildings are near to the hotel now. Its managed by the Fairmont chain which also manages Hotel Vancouver and a lot of fancy hotels.
I dont think New Westminster received one of the CN buildings but there is an elaborate train station at main and terminal and also Hotel Vancouver. New westminster remained a port and it was served by an electric transit system. Busses took over in popularity, then in the early 80's the skytrain began and it networks most major areas of the city now. New Westminster was a separate city but the growth linked all the original communities into the greater Vancouver regoional district.

during the depression the hotel opened to widows, and allowed them to stay for a dollar a day.

there is no land bridge to the island, we have a robust ferry system now, so i guess it was served by ships. steam powered paddlewheelers and such back then. The Hotel had a prominent location with views of the port. Early tourists would have ridden he rails across Canada and this would have been one of the most prominent hotels and a focal point for those with deep pockets. The Railroad spent a great deal on these hotels as that attracted investors to all the areas in which they were built. They were always intended to be showy and very extravagant and to this day they still are considered focal points to the cities that got them. it included most of the major cities across Canada. the development of these buildings became a center of activity and the industries that the rail lines supported.
the placement of these hotels had a role in shaping what we have here today.

Evidently it was built in Canada and I'd consider it a piece of Canadian history.

Ive seen a lot of old Edwardian and such sofas that don't appeal to me because they dont look so comfy but this thing will be really comfortable after restoration. For the price of free I really got a nice start and if It costs a bit for nice materials, I feel better with that than dropping money at Leons with good restoration this thing could last another century.
i wrote him back after we got it home,, I'm so excited and pleased. I plan to send the original owner some restoration pics once I can devote some time. Maybe I can find some of the original upholstery inside. I suspect it was horsehair upholstery or maybe leather or some other hard wearing fabric. what it has sure doesn't justify it's quality but maybe the dealer just quickly covered it , flipped it and that allowed it to be enjoyed another 40 years or so.

it was so heavy the two of us were not able to get it up the front steps. I had to sort of balance it while walking the two legs up the steps rocking it back and forth to gain each step in height. I was waiting for a neighbor to see how torn it is and tell me I'm going the wrong way I think it will need to be restored in the living room or some such arrangement.

Phil

[Manalto]

A nice, tough upholstery material which I think may be suitable to the era is mohair. (Others who are better informed can confirm or refute this. Maybe 1918 will chime in, since he's in the midst of a similar project.) Unfortunately, mohair, which used to commonly be used in household and automobile upholstery, is now obscenely expensive. In your climate, mohair or an imitation would be practical. In a hot climate it would be torture.

[phil]

mohair sounds nice, and a lot of the automotive upholstery would be suitable. I think I just want solid colors, Maybe a green for the Victorian Chair, and the couch could be dark grey.

I think what may happen is the local upholstery shops either wont sell to the public or charge a lot. I might be able to find more cooperative dealers online. the problem is that my searches tend to produce results for whoever pays the search engines. lots of links dead end in what is basically some form of advertising gimmick trickery.

[1918ColonialRevival]

Very nice find! It's neat that you have its provenance as well. That would have looked right at home in a turn-of-the-century hotel lobby.

I'm still looking at upholstery materials myself. Horsehair would be ideal, but it is cost prohibitive. Also, the "horsehair" fabric sold today is actually a blend of horsehair and a synthetic material. There are two companies making it that I am aware of, one in the UK and the other in Germany.

Though I have two sofas to do, I'll probably end up doing the 1720s Queen Anne armchair first. I hope to get it into the upholstery shop sometime later this year.

[phil]

I’m trying to learn what I can and try with my Victorian armchair I’ll post updates in that thread
I contacted the place in Germany about horsehair upholstery they communicated well I didn’t get a price but they said 150 euros for shipping

The majority of the work is getting to the stage where it has the Muslin on it and it’s ready for actual fabric I’ll see how I do.. it’s definitely a challenge but no rush. There are Lots of good Utube videos so I’ve watched lots in an effort to learn what to do. Being cheap is so educational

[phil]

I said the Emptess hotel was built by Canadian national It was in fact The Canadian Pacific Railway’s hotel chain . not CN

I had CN on the brain because I found this little pin in a junk box It has this logo and a crown. I’m wondering what it represents.