The wings are not decoration. They were drawn to trap heat and keep a draught off the side of your head, and three centuries later they still do the one thing no other seat in a living room does — they close around you.

The back is deep-buttoned by hand in a diamond field. Every button is pulled through the pad individually and tied off at the frame behind it, which is what folds the leather into those long diagonal creases rather than pressing a pattern into a flat panel. It is the slow way to do it, and the reason the folds fall differently on every chair.

The arms roll over the frame in one piece and gather into a tight scroll at the front face, so the leather turns the curve without a seam running across the top of the arm — the surface your hands actually rest on.

Studs are driven one at a time along the full front rail, up the outside of both arms, around both wings and across the outside back. The back is upholstered and studded to the same standard as the front, so the chair can sit out in a room rather than be pushed against a wall.

The seat sits at 50 cm, two or three centimetres above a standard armchair. It sounds like nothing until you stand up out of it. A high seat is a chair you leave easily rather than climb out of — which is why this shape has always belonged in a study or beside a fire, not in a low lounge arrangement.

Underneath is a kiln-dried hardwood frame. The legs are solid wood — tapered and square at the front, shaped and swept at the rear in the old cabinet manner, which makes the chair read lighter from behind than its size suggests.

Leather is a hide, not a fabric. Tone and grain shift from hide to hide, and the arm tops and the front edge of the seat will lighten before the rest of the chair does. That is the material behaving correctly, and it is why the chair you receive will not match these photographs exactly.

Photographed in Hazel, a light coffee brown, with Walnut legs and antique brass studs. Made to order in eleven upholstery leathers, with your choice of leg finish and stud metal.

Construction

• Kiln-dried hardwood frame
• Deep-buttoned back, each button tied individually to the frame
• Rolled scroll arms with gathered front faces
• Hand-driven studs on the front rail, arms, wings and outside back
• Upholstery leather on every visible face, back included
• Solid wood legs — tapered at the front, shaped at the rear
• 90 cm W × 87 cm D × 108 cm H (35.5" W × 34" D × 42.5" H)
• Seat height 50 cm (19.5")
• Crafted in 6–8 weeks