Back in October while driving home from work, I spotted three chairs put to the curb for trash. The seats were an awful orange and brown, but I liked the backs and legs, so I threw them in my car and brought them home (my wife is very supportive, or at least tolerant). As you can see, they were fairly worse for wear. Someone had even spray-painted a nice purple splotch on the back of this one.
I took the seat off to begin sanding and noticed this tag underneath.
I'm not sure how the punch card was used in furniture manufacturing, but Howell must have been pretty high tech.
The underside the seats are stamped "Howell Modern Metal Furniture St. Charles, ILL".
After sanding, re-staining (Minwax Provincial) and applying a satin polyurethane coat.
I covered the existing seat with the same fabric I used on my desk chair. Upholstery is not one of my skills, so I just went right over the old fabric and padding.
The Howell company began in 1867 producing iron door stops and stove-heated irons. They switched to furniture production in the 1920's and introduced a line of chrome-plated bent tubular steel furniture in 1933. A year later they brought in Viennese designer Wolfgang Hoffman and began a very successful run of modern furniture production, pausing to produce bombs, artillery shells and airplane wings during World War II. Howell was bought out by the Acme Steel Company in 1954 and after being bought out once again in 1975, closed its doors in 1979.
Hey, I know this is a long shot since you posted this in 2014 and did such beautiful work restoring these chairs, but it’s worth a shot. I have a set of 5 of these chairs (along with the table) that I cherish from my Grandparents - always reminds me of spending time there. I’ve been looking for at least just one of them to have a proper 6 chairs around the table (my Grandparents must have gotten rid of one since my Grandpa always used his comfortable rolling desk chair at one of the ends of the table). If you still have these and are willing to part with one that would be beyond amazing. Just email me and we can talk further (micahrbarrett@gmail.com). Either way that’s so cool you found them and awesome post!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by and the compliments, Michah. To be honest, I'd completely forgotten about these chairs until I saw your comment. Unfortunately, the wear and tear they took from my kids did them in and I no longer have them. I hope you find another to complete your set.
DeleteI have 4 I’m about to list on Facebook Marketplace if you’d like to buy.
DeleteMRBarrett I have 6 of them I will part with 2. :) email me at office@frontlineomaha.com
ReplyDelete