$1 Reserve - "Three Chairs"

OMG, I was scouting eBay about a month ago and look what I spotted. I couldn't believe my eyes... $1 reserve, based in Adelaide and a listing titled "3 x chairs". Yes these were the real deal. My opportunity to finally own an original *Featherson - 3 in fact!

Anyway, when I placed my auto bid, there was one other bidder and so the bid climbed to $25 with me being in the lead. So it appeared the other bidder didn't plan to go too high.

I had 6 whole days to wait for the auction to close, which felt like a lifetime, and anything could happen in that time! I decided to send a cheeky message to the seller asking if they would consider a buy now, but also made it clear that it was totally cool if they preferred the auction to simply run its course.

I was on such a high, so so excited, and just couldn't believe my luck. Not just one Featherson, but three. The listing description basically said "3 chairs taking up space in the shed, need to make some room"...No key words like "retro" or "vintage" or "Featherson", so few people would pick up on this listing...

Then within about 5 minutes my elated feeling suddenly turned to confusion and absolute despair. There was no reply to my message and THE LISTING HAD DISAPPEARED! After checking again and again, the listing had been removed. I sent another message to the seller asking if the chairs had sold, and again no reply.

So I spent the rest of the week pining over the chairs and wondering what happened to them. Maybe the seller also had them listed on Gumtree or elsewhere, hence the sudden removal of the listing.

I only hope they have gone to a good home full of people who will love and adore them forever!

After this eBay disaster I really felt like I had been on a mad emotional roller coaster, and it has taken me this long to recover before I could share this tragedy with you!

Sad face!

*Grant Featherson (1922-1995) was the genius behind this chair design. Self-taught, he produced the first of his famous plywood shell Contour chairs in 1951.

R152 Contour chair by Grant Featherston. (Image Source MidCenturyJo)

R160 Contour chair by Grant Featherston. (Image Source MidCenturyJo)

B230 Contour Chair. (Image Source badass mustache)