Identify designer of this sofa?  

Here is the writing and the shoe. Not the best photos! But to give you context my garage is a mess D:

There are some interesting things in your garage.

The writing now looks to me exactly 'lyst l

The picture of the foot still doe not tell us much. I suspect that it is an 'ebonized' wood. If it were just black lacquer you would expect some scratches and/or scuffing, so it is probably dyed.

I suppose it could be actual ebony, but I suspect this is far less likely than the above conclusion.

Now, tell us about that Jule Cheiftan chair that you have in your garage....

Yup, "lyst l

Thanks for the responses! I'll have to try putting the contrast colour under it and run an extension so I can get a lamp on it. I am having a lot of trouble picking it up with my phone camera! Thanks for the tips Spanky!

As for the chieftain chair, I took a punt on an online auction and my guess is that it is just a well made replica. Didn't cost much and has no markings. It is still quite beautiful though

The nice chairs are the ones to the left of the sofa. Jean Gillon. Leather is stuffed though D:!

I am curious what a "well made replica" chieftain looks like in Australia. Can I ask you to post some photos in a new thread? I mean, I have seen plenty of poorly made replicas in the USA, but none that are well made. And I have developed a sort of fascination for unmarked chieftains.

Also, apropos of the foot, I still can't tell what I am looking at, but I am beginning to suspect that my earlier hunch was wrong, but I have a new hunch that would be very exotic. So I am doubly curious about it. And I was hoping to learn something about this origins of the chair from the wood species, but now we know where it was made. As a consolation, I believe that we can learn something about the intended price point of the chair from learning what the foot is, and this might indirectly help identify it.

Hey I think these are better and show more detail! Used a different phone camera.

When I get some time I'll take out the replica chair and take some photos and make a new thread.

Let me know what you think of these photos you can actually see the detail in the shoe now!

Hey I think these are better and show more detail! Used a different phone camera.

When I get some time I'll take out the replica chair and take some photos and make a new thread.

Let me know what you think of these photos you can actually see the detail in the shoe now!

First photo

Had to resize to get them to fit specs here. Hopefully not too much quality is lost

Always crop before resizing, that way you get the biggest possible photo of the thing in question. (Cropping just trims away all the non-essential areas of the photo whereas resizing alters the resolution. But that one photo is pretty good! Now I'll back out and let the wood ID people take over!)

Yes, these are much better PP.

One thing I see right off the bat, is that Leif was correct, the legs are veneered Rosewood.

The shoes are solid wood though, and ebonized or black lacquered. Hard to say wood species definitively with the masking of the black pigment, but based on what you can see of the grain, I would say beech or oak.

I would not be surprised to see that the legs are a solid basewood, with veneer on top, and the shoes being the same piece of wood as under the veneer.

Black painted/lacquered ash is my best guess. Could be oak too. Something with a coarse grain.

I would say that it is not ebonized, (as in using some sort of iron bearing chemical to react with tannins in the wood) because the grain is partially obscured.