A rare J S Henry Oak and Ash armchair with its original velvet fabric intact. The elongated back with curled ears to the top rail. The most Devine sweeping and falling arms above turned supports. Standing on square tapered out swept legs to the rear and turned and stepped legs to the front which are joined by a wonderful stylised stretcher.
The velvet fabric although faded is rather beautiful having a silhouette of tress in a landscape. Finished with stud detail. We think the fabric sits perfectly with the chair and enhances the earthiness of this handsome chair and most definitely reflects the period. Dimensions: 125cm H x 59cm W x 56cm D Seat height 42cm

J S Henry was an esteemed furniture and cabinet maker who was recorded at several London addresses from the 1870’s through to the early 1900’s. They also had warehouses and showroom in Glasgow and the Glasgow school is easily identifiable in many of their pieces.
Furniture and Decoration & The Furniture Gazette, 15th October 1895, mentioned that Henry was known in Britain, on the Continent, and in America and Australia, and that his warehouse had ‘about 130 different pattern chairs of all kinds and shapes’.
The article continued that ‘One important feature of Mr Henry’s business is that a particular pattern is very seldom made in quantities, the idea being to always give customers something different’

Examples in public collections include a mahogany tea table, made 1897, in the Nordenfjeldske Kunstindustrimuseum, Trondheim, and a desk of harewood inlaid with lines of pale blue dyed wood of about 1900, Victoria & Albert Museum London. Also probably the makers of an Art Nouveau desk, mahogany inlaid with various coloured wood in 1897 at Manchester Town Hall. C. F. A. Voysey produced designs of simple oak furniture for the firm from 1899. E. G. Punnett designed Art Nouveau-style pieces for J S Henry, a style also used by G. Montague Ellwood who was the firm’s most prolific designer.