SOLD in 2025!
LOCATION- ADELAIDE. (This is a consignment item.)
I travelled to this furniture and took all the photos for this listing- I’m 100% versed in what I’m selling here. This suite is in brilliant condition! AND IS ALSO VERY RARE! This is the first time I’ve come across one of these suites in these colours (they’re normally dark timber with black leather). These lighter tones pare back the look- this suite is less bold- plus, these tones give this suite a richness AND a subtle pop of colour. It’s as special as they come.
Our listed price is for ONE ARMCHAIR only. (We have 2 armchairs, one matching footstool and a matching 2-seater sofa available- all priced SEPARATELY. Prices depend on how many pieces you’re interested in buying.) To express interest in purchasing this suite (or part of the suite) call or SMS us using the phone number in our CONTACT section. The chances of us breaking up this suite depends on what we’d be left with and how saleable the leftover pieces would be.
Interstate freight can also be arranged through one of our preferred furniture carriers or a carrier of your choice for a very reasonable fee. It would cost ABOUT $240 to send the TWO armchairs to MELBOURNE.
Provenance and Background Info
Written in Dec 2024
A Norman Archibald lounge armchair / chair MADE IN BAYSWATER, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA around 1974. (The listed price is for ONE lounge chair only- the other pieces are priced SEPARATELY.) This is undoubtedly some of the best QUALITY furniture I’ve come across in the last 20 years of being this business (if not THE best). These chairs are solid and heavy. If used with any sense, it’s likely they will last FOREVER. For most items being sold through iNVISeDGE, I can confidently say the item will last generations but for these chairs I believe these frames will last forever. This is because Norman Archibald used traditional, TENON and MORTICE joints to craft these exposed timber plug ends. This not only creates an interesting visual look but means the joint areas are as strong as chair-joints can possibly be. These joints extend ALL THE WAY through the supporting posts which means it’s impossible for them to prise apart. Cracks in the joint area and other joint-damage is virtually impossible which means these frames will last forever (providing you use and transport them with a little sense). The saddle-leather is also some of the most luxurious chair-upholstery I’ve seen. This leather is SUPER thick and beautiful! You don’t see upholstery of this QUALITY in furniture anymore (except in some of the premium brands such as Cassina and B & B Italia). Six new Cassina Cab dining chairs will now set you back about AU $15,000! (Written in 2024.)
Norman Archibald’s furniture is a triumph in Australian furniture design and craftsmanship. It’s deservedly included in important gallery and museum collections Australia-wide such as the NGV collection. Founded in 1861, the NGV is the oldest and most visited gallery in Australia. This Gallery hosts a wide range of international and local artists, exhibitions and events; from contemporary art to major international historic exhibitions, fashion and design, architecture, sound and dance. http://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/about/.
The cushions of this lounge suite sit on the saddle leather and are upholstered in soft, FULL-GRAIN leather. Full-grain leather is also VERY-durable providing look after it. Leather is a low-maintenance product. You must clean leather if you sweat in your leather furniture and keep leather moisturised with a quality leather conditioner (especially if your leather furniture will be exposed to a temperature-controlled environment (such as air-conditioning). But if you do this, quality leather will hold up well to use over the long-term.
The biggest thing this Norman Archibald lounge has going for it is the COMFORT. These are GREAT to lounge in. They may not look that comfortable but make no mistake, they are! It’s beautiful to settle back in this design (there’s plenty of room to find your own comfort in these chairs too). The top cushion can fit in the small of your neck (and beautifully) if you slouch down in this furniture. You can also choose to allow your head to rest fully back (that comfort is also AWESOME!) or you can have your head supported by this cushion if you’re watching TV. The backs are low (which tailors a more stream-lined look) but the lower backs are NOT at the expense of comfort. You can also obviously sit up properly in this furniture and have the chair hold you in perfect seating position- whether you slouch back or sit up properly, the choice is yours. Plus the backs of the cushions have air vents to allow the air move out of the cushions in a measured way for even better comfort! This is virtually never seen in furniture because it’s so expensive to produce chairs like this. The cushion filling is perfect (and brilliant in quality), providing just the right amount of plushness and support.
After experiencing this design in the flesh I can confidently say it’s very undervalued and under-rated. This vintage designer furniture has a long way to increase in price before it starts to hit anywhere near it’s true value. The value of this premium leather alone (with NO workmanship) is almost worth this asking price. This guarantees the future re-sale value of this suite (providing you use it with some sense). Vintage Tessa chairs are fetching about double this and the quality of this furniture exceeds that of Tessa (I can’t believe I’m even writing that … but it’s true- the mortice and tenon joints provides next-level construction quality.)
With the warm-grain orientation from this beautiful timber (I think it’s Tasmanian Oak) and these FULL-GRAIN leathers, this Norman Archibald suite is in a category of its own. This furniture holds incredible INVESTMENT appeal- (I doubt these chairs could be built in Australia today for even TRIPLE this asking price). The craftsmanship, timber and leather are all a stunning combination so the LOOKS box also gets a resounding tick. I recently saw one of these vintage chairs in the waiting area of a chic hair salon in Collingwood, Melbourne. On the polished concrete floors and almost the shiny chrome barber’s chairs, the earthiness and boldness of this design looked INCREDIBLE! … Finally we need to consider conscious consumption.
These Norman Archibald lounges are almost 50 YEARS OLD and look at them! They certainly won’t be ending up in landfill anytime soon. Additionally, they were HAND-CRAFTED in Australia- so virtually no carbon emissions resulted from the manufacture and freight of these chairs. These chairs were purchased in Melbourne in the 1970’s by this vendor (this is a one-owner suite) and it was only very recently moved across with this family to ADELAIDE. (I actually photographed the suite in Melbourne- it’s now in Adelaide though.) This suite has not been shipped half-way around the globe from a developing country! Shipping furniture in from overseas is not smart- we could and should be making our furniture in Australia again. Most mass-produced furniture is purposely built to end up as our landfill within about 10 years so we have to go out and buy more. This lounge suite is very competitive in price when you put it beside chairs coming out of modern-production factories but there’s absolutely NO comparison as far as craftsmanship and quality is concerned. Additionally, if you decide to invest in this vintage lounge suite, you will be supporting iNVISeDGE, a SMALL Australian business that only employs LOCAL people. We obviously don’t have an overseas call-centre. And we also DON’T outsource our website-development to an overseas country- a lot of Australia’s website development work today is now being done in India).
Visually stunning, these chairs are true statement pieces and with their low-line backs, they won’t dominate the space. I can picture these in a homely cottage up in the mountains in front of the fireplace- they look warm and inviting to use- not cold and clinical like most designer furniture these days.
iNVISeDGE – a breath of fresh air in this modern world and also for our environment. There’s no better way to invest in your home, reduce landfill and your carbon footprint.
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