Rare Alps Chair

Found in Montpellier, this late 19th-century Alpine chair is in the Tyrolean folk tradition, three-legged with a cutout heart at the top of the backrest and a fleur-de-lis pierced below. Chairs like this were made by hand across the Alps for centuries, the Tyrolean style stretching from Austria through Switzerland and northern Italy into the French Alps, every chair built from local wood with simple tools and the small folk symbols that meant something in the home. The cutout heart was practical as well as charming - your hand went through it to lift the chair from one room to the next - and the fleur-de-lis below places this one squarely in France. Sylvie pulls one up beside a desk, or sets four around a small kitchen table. Four available, sold separately.