The History of Upholstered Furniture Part 4

4

PADDING

MATERIALS.

Since the advent of upholstered furniture some 400 years ago the

upholsterer has been constantly striving to improve the comfort of the

various pieces of upholstered furniture designed during his own particular

lifetime, and for many years the comfort of the upholstered product depended entirely on the ability of the craftsman. However, with the discovery of foam rubber and synthetics during the last thirty years the work of the tradesman upholsterer has been made much easier. It cannot be denied that although many synthetics have made much headway into the upholstering industry, many of the stuffing materials used during the last 400 years are still being used in the upholstery industry. This has been brought about by the reproduction periods of many of the antique pieces of furniture made by craftsmen in previous periods. This type of furniture calls for first and second stuffing’s stitched edges, and cushions filled with stuffing materials, which have been used as cushion filling materials for many years, and are still in demand, by a big section of the upholstery buying public. We also find that many of these materials are used in conjunction with the synthetics of today, let us therefore study some of these stuffing materials and see what influence they have

had on the trends of upholstery design.

Flock

Until the advent of Latex rubber, flock was perhaps the most sought after stuffing material on the market. As a filling on its own it was not satisfactory as it has a tendency to go hard and flatten out. However, when used in conjunction with a seat sprung with spiral springs, and if applied evenly and expertly by a craftsman, could be moulded into quite a comfortable seat or back. This material is made from fumigated rags, which are in turn teased in special teasing machines. Care must be taken when applying this stuffing material to an upholstered piece of furniture to ensure that all foreign matter is removed, and that the flock is completely free from lumps. Most upholsterers tease the flock in boxes with a stick before applying it to the actual job.

One of the disadvantages of using flock is that should the outside

covering material need cleaning, and cleaning fluids be applied then there is a possibility that the dye from the flock could be drawn through the cover thus ruining perhaps an expensive piece of material. This has often been the case when people have used shampoos to clean various pieces of upholstered furniture.

Horse Hair

An old timer that ruled supreme as a stuffing material for many years was horsehair. It is very resilient, and is still used by many upholsterers as a first stuffing for many types of upholstered furniture.

However, as in most things there are numerous qualities. The cheaper varieties consist of short hair with little resilience. Owing to the scarcity of horsehair, quite a lot of it, which is used at present, is reconditioned, and re-teased. It is often procured from old unwanted chairs and settees, and if washed sterilized and re-teased, can be used, irrespective of age, on fully upholstered furniture without any loss of its former resilience.

Horse hair is washed and sterilized by various methods, and after these processes it is twisted into rope, forming the curl, which is retained throughout its life, thus supplying the resilience and springiness so

essential. A large proportion is dyed black, whilst some is left its natural colour. These are called black and grey hair, but the colour is not so important as the length and curl. The shorter the hair the less the curl, and therefore the less resilience, and the greater the quantity required to obtain good results. Care must be taken when using horsehair as a stuffing material to ensure that it is completely covered with flock or linters, and should there be a laxity in this operation; the hair finds its way through the cover to the discomfort of the person sitting on it.