It was just an atypical situation for us.
A listing on Trade Me for an original Parker teak lounge suite, start bid mumble mumble dollars - not high, not low. So we laughingly slapped on the opening bid thinking "Fer sure it will end up double that..." Six days later, we own it!
The seller was an architect with a great home - not flash, just clean simple style - in the heights of Taupo. Recently widowed, he is moving out of Taupo and "cleansing" himself of various possessions.
We drove down on a blue-sky autumn day to collect it and thoroughly enjoyed the trip. Breakfast in Tirau, then on to Taupo and met with the seller.
He tells us that he has owned the suite for almost 50 years so that makes it an early 1960's piece. The cushions have been recovered on the chairs, but the material on the sofa was original in a dusty pink for both. The frame has marks of its history including the typical Parker backrest breakout which had been sort-of repaired. The rattan backrests are in excellent condition though, and the rubber suspension system has been replaced with a modern webbing alternative retaining the original fixing system.
Probable finished look is similar to this. Lots to get through first though!
We would love to hold onto this for ourselves. We recently sold
Peggy (a Parker sofa in the same style) and kind of regret doing that. If it wasn't for our riotous daughter Alice, we would definitely hang on to this elegant, curvey, delicate suite. However, practicality will likely dictate that this suite moves on to a more suitable home.
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Hello,
ReplyDeleteI wonder if you could provide some advice...
I found a couch of this type in Australia at a low price, but with some damage, and I'm wondering if I should get it.
First question - how easy would it be to remove the sides, and possibly separate the back section from the seat section? I would be doing this for transportation and joint maintenance.
- i.e. what sort of joints join these parts? I've seen the screw joining the rear-upper corner of the sides to the back-section. What joins the sides to the seat-section, and how easy is this to disassemble?
Second question - the front part of the arm-rests have been chewed (by a dog I presume), and I was wondering about repair options. Could I splice a new piece of wood in, or simply shape it back to a shorter arm, or putty it up to the original shape?
Any other suggestions?
Hope you can help.
all the best.