An Antique Chair Returns to Glory

A couple years back, I saw three chairs sitting by the side of the road. Two of them looked like the lighter-colored one on the right, and the oddball was the darker one on the left. I ignored them for days, but nobody came to rescue them.

So I did.

It turns out that the chair on the left is a genuine antique, made in America around the middle of the 1800s.

The chair on the right--one of two "twins"--is a pretty poor copy of the Victorian chair. I donated the two ugly facsimiles to Goodwill and kept the legitimate antique. It was more beautiful, from every angle, than its poor copies, although it was a little beat up and needed to be reupholstered.

I knew it was a swan who just needed her feathers dusted off.

Finally the swan got her cleanup. Here she is, newly refurbished and upholstered:

Doesn't she look gorgeous? The bronze coin-dot fabric I used is also on a couple of throw cushions in my living room, to tie things together nicely.

The pugs seem to approve, too.

To me, throwing out perfectly useable chairs, instead of donating them to charity, is plain stupid. But throwing out a gorgeous antique is a crime.