The wingback chair of the Eternal Father

A good armchair is a sign of distinctive authority.  In old times it was reserved for the patriarch, today women should proclaim their conquest of equality, sitting in the house wingchair.  

Interestingly, the most famous of all the wingback chairs – made in Italy since 1912 by a craftsman from Turin named Renzo Frau – had a feminine name (the “Poltrona Frau”).  Upholstered with a smooth leather or capitonnée, the Frau armchairs created an unforgettable style in bourgeois homes.  They became a symbol of wellbeing and power.  The advertising was also original, as they were announced with a poster in which Frau appeared to be the Eternal Father sitting in a Poltrona, with the caption “And on the seventh day he rested…..in a Frau armchair”.