Calico Club Chair
A calico club chair is a deep-seated armchair delivered in plain fabric ready for final upholstery, valued for sink-in comfort and generous proportions.
Calico Club Chair
A calico club chair is essentially a large, comfortable armchair stripped to its foundational calico or hessian cover, waiting for bespoke top upholstery. When you search for this phrase, you encounter heavy Victorian and Edwardian armchairs designed for deep lounging and informal country house drawing rooms.
The pieces on this page span the nineteenth century, the Edwardian era, and the nineteen-thirties, taking forms such as scroll backs, tub chairs, and low club shapes. English country house styles dominate, alongside French pairs and specific maker-attributed frames.
Most examples arrive ready for top covers, though some retain buttoned backs or distinct aesthetic movement legs. Buyers choose them to match specific interior colour schemes by applying their own chosen fabric directly to the calico base.
Materials and construction
Frames rely on sturdy timbers like mahogany, walnut, beech, and general wood, providing robust structural skeletons. Brass often forms the castors fitted to the legs for mobility.
Upholstery build-up utilises dense hessian and calico stretched tightly over deep springs and stuffing. This provides a strong, neutral foundation designed to support decorative outer fabrics.
Several chairs carry the ghosts of former country house library secrets hidden deep within their coiled springs.
Distinguishing quality
Quality rests primarily in the timber frame's solidity, the depth of the seating proportions, and the integrity of the underlying spring coil work. Heavier, larger frames from established makers command greater attention.
The fineness of the turned wooden legs, the presence of original brass castors, and the crispness of the scroll or square back shaping separate standard workshop output from exceptional pieces.
Howard and Sons·Trollope and Sons·Gillows·Hamptons and Sons·William Birch
The Calico Club Chair Glossary
- Calico
- A plain-woven cotton fabric used as the tight inner upholstery cover on chairs. It acts as the stable base over which decorative top fabric is eventually fitted.
- Hessian
- A coarse woven fabric, typically made from jute fibres, utilised inside upholstered seating for webbing and foundation support. It provides durable tension across the frame springs.
- Scroll back
- A chair design where the top of the backrest curves outward and backward in a tight scroll form. This silhouette is typical of nineteenth-century English seating.
- Tub chair
- An armchair featuring a continuous curved back and arms forming a rounded enclosure. It offers a compact, enveloping seat shape.
- Aesthetic movement
- A late nineteenth-century design style emphasising visual and artistic qualities over heavy historical revivalism. It appears on chair legs and frame details from this period.
Calico Club Chair: Frequently Asked Questions
What is a calico club chair?
A calico club chair is a generous armchair upholstered in plain calico fabric, leaving the final choice of top covering to the buyer.
These pieces usually date from the Victorian and Edwardian periods, offering deep seats and robust wooden frames.
Why buy one in calico?
Buying a chair in calico allows you to select your own exterior fabric to match an exact interior room scheme.
It also reveals the underlying upholstery build and frame construction clearly for inspection.
How do I identify a Howard style chair?
Howard style chairs typically feature low profiles, deep seats, rolled arms, and exposed wooden legs with brass castors.
Many bear stamps or stylistic links to nineteenth-century makers like Howard and Sons.
What woods are used in the frames?
Makers constructed these frames using solid hardwoods such as mahogany, walnut, and beech.
These dense timbers ensure the heavy, sprung structures remain stable through decades of use.
Where were these chairs used historically?
They originated as comfortable lounge seating in English country houses, libraries, and drawing rooms.
Their deep proportions were designed for relaxed sitting rather than formal posture.