Description

Provenance and Background Info

(These Snelling dining chairs sold through iNVISeDGE in 2006 for $3000 for all 6. Four of them had Snelling Functional Products labels. All six chairs had been completely refurbished with new webbing (that was professionally dyed red). These chairs are worth similar today (2019). I haven’t sold a set of these chairs for some time now because there are now replicas on the market. Values have not gone ahead like lesser known vintage designs that haven’t been reproduced.)

NOTE – This description was written 2006. Some information will be out of date.

The Snelling webbed chair is a design icon and chairs like this have been a favourite for over 60 years. First designed after World War II, by Australian designer Douglas Snelling, the webbed chair was conceived to make use of the abundance of parachutes left over after the war. Following the Great Depression, people re-used everything and these chairs are a great reminder of this philosophy. Snelling chairs have a graceful shape and style and certainly grow on you with time. This suite also utilises various design elements of the era giving them a distinct 50’s flavour. These are an ideal example of investment furniture- Douglas Snelling pieces are starting to enjoy a resurgence and as such I feel they will increase in value in future years.

(Again written in 2006 when replicas hadn’t bombarded the market. Most of what I sell these days won’t or can’t be reproduced for the prices I sell them for. These chairs take a LOT of work to completely refurbish properly which translates into big $ so they only appeal to the purists who want authentic vintage furniture. There is still a market for refurbished Snelling furniture but it’s smaller than it was back in 2006- because of replicas!)