The Danish Brigatine, Metta Catherina was carrying a cargo that included tanned reindeer hides from St. Petersburg to Genoa when it sunk off the Cornish Coast in 1786. She lay almost completely buried in a deep bed of silt off Mount Edgcumbe until she was discovered by divers in 1973. A team of divers recorded and excavated the wreck over the next 32 years. We were fortunate enough to find enough of this leather to handle the reupholstery.
The chair as it appeared in a Christie's catalogue, 1928.
Completed Samuel Johnson chair with c.1786 leather
