I have rescued a vintage Papa Bear Chair from being thrown out. It was destroyed by a dog. Consequently the two front legs have been lost. I would like to restore it but need to know where to get those legs. They screw on.
If anyone has any ideas I would be very thankful.
Here are some pictures
A few thoughts:
1. AP Stolen Papa Bear chair legs do not screw on. They are connected via wedged tenon (see photo). It appears that the screwed-on metal bracket may be a repair attempt by someone who did not appreciate the framing of the chair.
2. Based on the metal L-brackets that can be seen on the closer backside corner, it would lend further credence that there were poorly-done repairs to the frame.
3. Tough to tell from the photo angle, but the underside of your chair does resemble legit AP Stolen framing. Can you take and post more photos?
4. If indeed a legit AP Stolen chair, it would be worth doing a more intensive restoration process that would include more appropriate repairs of the frame, in addition to re-upholstering.
There are people on this forum who have reupholstered Papa Bear chairs themselves, so they would be able to provide better comments than me.
Do you have couple of photos of the whole chair, like from the front and a straight-on side view? I think this chair was copied by at least one company long ago and of course today there are tons of cheap knockoffs. Not that yours is one of those, just would be helpful to rule out the vintage copies.
I own and have re-upholstered a Papa Bear. I can tell you a lot about the chair. I suspect that yours is a vintage fake. As said above, more photos would be good.
And new legs could be fabricated, anybody with a lathe could do it quite easily.
And the legs of a real Papa Bear are Afrormosia, not Teak, as is generally thought, but since you've probably got a vintage fake it would probably be best to use whatever would the rear legs are made of.
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