Description

The full set of 10 chairs SOLD to Kim $4,000. These chairs sold within 7 days of being listed on the iNVISeDGE website- keep following our NEWLY LISTED Category.

These chairs sold from our North Brisbane depot at Morayfield.

After 18 years of being in this business I’ve never seen more than 6 matching chairs in this style. Not in a photo, not in person. We are keen to keep these as set as a set of 10 because they’re such a special find however we would consider selling 8 (the price- offers over $4000- is for 10 chairs). If 10 don’t fit around your dining table it would be smart to buy all 10 anyway and put 2 in another area of your home (they’re great in the office because they’re SUPREMELY comfortable and not a big chair). They can then be pulled into the dining table when extra chairs are needed. Having 10 would strengthen your investment too- the right buyer for 10 would pay virtually anything for them.

Our last 2 sets of 6 Rufenacht dining chairs, sold within 2 days of being listed for $2400 as a set of 6. A set of 8 or 10 is worth more per chair because Rufenacht Furniture has not been in production since 2006 (read the description below). A matching set of more than 6 chairs is pretty-much irreplaceable. The last set of 6 Rufenacht chairs I had went to Tasmania. The owner added to the Rufenacht chairs he purchased new back in the early 1980’s. After having them 40 years he loved them more than ever and wanted to extend his existing set to 10 chairs. Most people would want a change after 40 years but if you know you can’t get anything better, why bother? He purchased 6 chairs from me for $2400, paid for freight to Tasmania (from Brisbane) and then RE-UPHOLSTERED the 6 he purchased from me to match in with the existing 6 he had. (Re-upholstery in the same quality leather would cost about $280 PER CHAIR- he spent thousands to get 10 matching chairs.) I believe the right buyer would pay $850 PER CHAIR for these (or around $10,000 as a set of 10) because they’re more superior to virtually anything else on the market. Instead of pricing them at $10,000 the set (which is what I think they’re worth) I want my buyers to get a STRONG INVESTMENT. Watch the value of a set of 10 of these chairs in upcoming years!

The buyer who purchased the set of 6 of these chairs I sold for $2400 back in 2016 (click into the FURNITURE section above) loves his chairs (he works from home at least 20 hours per week and uses one of these chairs as his office chair when he’s working from home). He has since become one of my best customers. I’ve suggested a few pieces to him now (outside the brief he’s given me) and he’s bought whatever I’ve suggested and loves all the iNVISeDGE items he has. When he came to me in 2016 he said he wanted a set of Parker dining chairs. I told him that these were infinitely better than Parker chairs. There’s no way he could have sat in a Parker Spadeback chair for 8 hours a day year in, year out, but with Rufenacht chairs you can (and he does!)

Provenance and Background Info

(Written around 2016)

A stunning set of TEN leather dining chairs by highly acclaimed South Australian furniture designer and manufacturer Joe Rufenacht (however we currently have 10 matching chairs available in this set). In my opinion these are up in the top 3 best dining chairs I’ve sold in the 15 years I’ve been in this business. I sold two sets (from my top 3) for $4500 FOR SIX- I believe these Rufenacht chairs are way undervalued and a strong investment.
There was a time in the late 1970’s when Rufenacht had won more furniture design awards than anybody else in this country. Why? you may ask when virtually no-one has ever heard him. Because Rufenacht was a stickler for quality- he was fastidious about furniture. The chairs on offer here were put through 40 prototypes! … Just ponder that for a moment. Rufenacht created a chair from scratch- tested it, had other people test it, mulled over it, made adjustments, went back and made another chair from scratch, tested it … yadda yadda. He did this 40 times for this design! It is no wonder he kept winning design awards. His work must have had huge price tags on it in its day- these days there’s little of it around.

If this set of 10 sells for anything under $500 a chair the buyer has a great investment. If you look at the Falcon chair by Vatne Mobler of Norway (a single-seater lounge chair done at the same time in the 1970’s with a very similar design) you’ll see they were selling in Australia for about $900-$1000 a chair around 2004. These days in 2019 they get $2600 EACH in some shops. This design by Rufenacht could have been inspired by the Falcon chair but he’s adapted the Falcon to be used as a dining chair. Falcon chairs are worth around $2000 each for a lounge chair- let’s say that if Vatne Mobler made dining chairs (which they did NOT) they would have to be worth about $7000 for SIX at least. To me the investment appeal of these chairs is a no-brainer.

The investment appeal box is ticked, comfort is well and truly ticked (they would be some of the most comfortable dining chairs I’ve ever sat in) which leaves us with quality and value for money.

After many modern pieces end up as landfill these 40+ year old chairs will be passed onto another owner and then yet another generation. It was said on the ABC in 2006 that Rufenacht’s furniture will be the antiques of tomorrow and after being in this business for 15 years I agree. JR furniture (Rufenacht’s company) closed its doors in 2006 unable to compete with cheap overseas imports because JR items are of a quality that is barely ever seen. As an example of the quality, Rufenacht only used Howe Leather. (There’s the original vintage Howe Leather label under most of these chairs.) I believe Howe Leather from the 1970’s and 1980’s is the best leather ever made. I have sold vintage Italian leather and the rest … in my eyes the leather of these chairs is as good as the very best. Look at this leather after 40+ years of use!

Chairs like this are the reason I do this job. They inspire and should show all of us the way forward. Most modern furniture is made with little respect for the earth’s resources and even less for the workers who make them (they’re virtually slaves). If these chairs were made today in Australia I would still promote them but the fact they’re vintage (and no longer made) makes them an even smarter investment. When you invest in items such as this there’s no better way to reduce your carbon footprint. If these chairs are used with some sense there’s no reason why they won’t last another 40 years and then another 40 …

1911