Carved Oak Frame Leather Sofa Set, Tan Pebbled

Seating set, pebbled leather on carved oak, late 20th century European manufacture. Specimens of this type migrated in large numbers to the subcontinent, where they achieved their final and most powerful form: the daftar sofa.

What the Scholars Note

Future excavators of the Indian office cabin will recognise this immediately, the sofa of the sahab, the one visitors were shown to while the peon brought water, it's heavy carved posts with their melon-topped finials announcing authority before a word was spoken. The pebbled tan leather that forgives everything, the rope-carved rail, the rosette medallions, the block feet panelled with diamonds. A set built so solidly that its rob outlasted three changes of management.

Its Domestic Posting

At home it serves the same office with better company, the drawing room wall that faces the door, so arrivals meet it first, or a study where one man, one newspaper and one sofa complete each other. The three-seater holds the family, the two-seater holds the guests and the argument about which is which never ends.

Conservation Notes

Leather asks little, a dry dust weekly, a leather conditioner twice a year and distance from direct sun. The carved oak takes a soft brush along the rope moulding. Built heavy on purpose. Move it with two people and no pride.