C19th French Chaise Longue

An elegant 19th Century French Chaise Longue traditionally reupholstered and covered in 36 Bourne Street Irish Beetled Linen, on turned ebonised legs. The technique of ‘beetling’ produces a hard, flat surface with an iridescent sheen and makes the linen fabric less porous. Circa 1860

Made from start to finish in a 300 year old mill in Northern Ireland, our Irish Beetled Linen is a truly unique fabric. It possesses a papery and crisp handle, and a beautifully smooth and lustrous surface; the resulting characteristics of the beetling process. In this unusual finishing technique, the linen is wrapped around an iron beam, then repeatedly pounded from above with wooden hammers which rise and fall via a series of ancient slow moving cogs and gears, all powered by a waterwheel in the nearby river.