Recently, i have had an unusually large amount of enquiries from customers in the United States of America who want to purchase chesterfields, both sofas, settees, and chairs from me. After looking into this in some detail, it seems that there is a huge demand for a genuine, English Leather Chesterfield, in the states and currently not many people servicing this market. To this end, we have recently spoken with our haulage company and negotiated a deal to give free delivery to all US orders over £1500.00 for the next couple of months to see just how much demand there is over there!

This offer does exclude the Chesterfield Suite Specials, but includes the whole of the rest of the range- including hump back, tufted, buttoned, and cushion based models.

I’ll keep you posted !

A demic chesterfield is a sofa which uses the offcuts of leather and is not made using full hides.

Prior to upholstery, a patchwork or leather scraps is sewn together and laid over the frame. It is then applied- using more buttons that for a usual chesterfield so as to hide the hems.

The frames will usually be of lower quality too, as the point of a Demic Leather Chesterfield is not best quality but cheapest price.

The real problem with a demic, though, will only become apparent over time. The stiching can pull and work loose- leaving unfixed holes on the sofa, which then let in dirt and grime and can rot away the sofa from the inside.

For a comparison- for a full hide 4 seat sofa in good quality antique hide you can expect to pay £1,000- £1,500 whereas the value if a demic of the same basic design is only £300- £400

The old saying does stand true here- you get what you pay for!

The problem with a Leather Chesterfield is that a good portion of the price you pay is for the bits you cant see rather than the bits you can, which is why i decided to write this article to let people know what to look for in a good quality chesterfield sofa.

Firstly, the easy bits to spot-

Is it real leather?

the easiest way to find out is to ask or smell.

Is it a demic?

This is also fairly easy to spot. Look at the arm from the front. Is the last button on the top of the arm or the outside of the arm? if the top then the leather is full hide, if on the side then the sofa is a demic. These are much cheaper in price and quality. I will post more on this later.

Other than that, without pulling the thing apart, check the weight- the heavier the better, and check the reputation of the seller- and bear in mind that many sellers DONT have anything to do with the manufacturing process, they just buy and sell