United States, Chair First-Class Ballroom

Product Description

When the estate of Dr. Sarah Forbes (owner of the Windmill Point Restaurant in Kitty Hawk, NC) was being settled, I was asked to help clean out her storage units. Her collection, while vast, was often in very poor condition so many decades after the 1984 auction. One storage room was filled with hundreds of chairs which had been allowed to sit under a leaky roof for decades. Sadly, this furniture was all destroyed as the chairs were stacked 4 high and many had fallen over knocking off legs and causing other damage. Much of the upholstery was wet and black with mold. Still, I went through them all 2 or 3 times looking for any that could be saved.

After hour of searching, I was only able to find one chair off to the side that wasn’t ruined.  I was pleasantly surprised to find it, however, since it came from the first-class ballroom.  These chairs are iconic in their mid-century style and only rarely become available for sale, usually then at auction for high prices.  In very good condition with general wear from use, but still in the original USL fabric.  The tag on the bottom tells us that it was recovered on Voyage #303.  Could use a good cleaning.  I’ve cleaned a few pieces for my collection, and they look amazing.

Measures about 29″ tall x 21.5″ wide x 22.5″ deep.  The chair is visible in the archival photo as the closest chair to the camera and could, in fact, be this very chair.