Philadelphia Stool

B

Bob Compton

Active member
I am building my first Philadelphia Stool and request suggestions on what type of fabric would be the most period proper.
Philadelphia ball & claw legs with shells on the knee and applied shells to 2 rails made with mahogany.
Bob
 
Nobody's answering- I'll give it a go.  Upholstery varied on these sorts of pieces.  Embroidered or "Turkey worked" seats were known though not necessarily on this style or time.  It's possible they could have used linen, cotton, or wool prints or woven plaids/ginghams etc.  Leather was a oft selected choice.  Leather was an comparably inexpensive option.  Cloth fabircs were labor intensive to make and therefore expensive. 

My feeling is that you should choose an upholstery that suits you.  Some of the period upholsteries are pretty funky looking and can be hard to acccept.  I don't care for Turkey work for example.  You could also go for a period fabric and miss and be disappointed.  I think a safe bet that looks great is a silk damask.  This sort of material probably wasn't as typical in the period as one might expect.  It's not real hard wearing and you really have to be careful about how you upholster (always do the real heavy lifting with a bit of linen or cheap cotton then cover it with the "show" or "top" cloth).  Good silk damasks are expensive and not easy to find.  You can find some on the internet if you shop around.  Schumacher makes cotton damasks which probably don't cut it for authenticity.

All that said, this is a foot stool (did they have foot stools?) maybe you should just go with leather.  You could do a black or green leather on a mahogany that would look nice.  Don't be afraid to use a bright green.  If you go with leather try to get a top grain or full grain and choose something fairly thick - not glove leather.

Hopefully the more knowledgable guys/gals will step in and correct me and we'll both learn something.

Adam
 
Bob,

You're doing a fairly high style stool. And yes Adam, they had footstools. Winterthur has a few and Chipstone has an amazing oval stool with ball and claw feet with acanthus. For a second or third quarter 18th century upholstered piece, Damasks were quite fashionable. Leather, as Adam suggested, is always a good choice. The turkeywork and wools are probably a bit early for this particular piece (and wools are incredibly hard to find at this point anyway). I'm not sure where you're located but you're welcome to contact me and I can give you the name and number of an extremely good period upholsterer if you need it. There just isn't enough demand for the fabric houses to produce and keep reproduction period fabrics on the market. Shumacher and Scalamandre are two good fabric houses that carry some good fabrics that are close what you need. They both have a decent selection of damasks and chintz as well as some solid cottons and silks.

Hope that helps.

Chuck Bender
 
Hi Chuck & Adam

Thank-You for the info. Now I get to follow your suggestions and see what we can find. I hope to finishing the stool next month.
 
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