Poltrona Frau

Renzo Frau was selling for leather manufacturers in Turin when he came across the Chesterfield armchair in Britain. He began by importing it, then registered his trademark with the Turin chamber of commerce in 1912, joining “poltrona”, the armchair, to his own name. He died in 1926, and his wife Savina Pisati took over the business, working from the drawings he left behind.

Leather has remained the subject. Pelle Frau is full-grain bovine hide, aniline-dyed right through, which has a concrete consequence: a surface scratch does not expose a paler layer underneath. Tanning runs in three stages, tanning, retanning and finishing, with the retanning stage setting the handle, structure, grain and sheen. The hides are mostly European, and treatments have been water-based rather than solvent-based for over twenty years.

The Vanity Fair armchair has been in production since 1930, known simply as “model 904” until 1984. The company left Turin for Tolentino, in the Marche region, in 1963 and still manufactures there. Since 1986 it has also trimmed interiors for Ferrari, Maserati, Audi and Jaguar, along with yachts and aircraft.

Artopia carries Poltrona Frau in Geneva. Leather is chosen by hand as much as by eye, and swatches travel badly, so it is worth seeing them in the showroom.