The Famous Judge’s Chair

A few years ago, my Dad called me and told me he’d found a cool chair that I needed to restore. 

At the time, I was overloaded with chairs (like pretty-much always) and I told him that while it sounded like an interesting piece, I really didn’t need another project to take on. 

Apparently, this piece had a long history then had ended up living in someone’s barn until my Dad had come upon it. It ended up being one that I squeezed into my restoration and upholstering queue just because of the story it came with and I’m glad I did. 

Upon picking up the chair from my Dad, he mentioned to me that it was claimed to be Judge Roy Bean’s chair. 

It’s uncertain whether it truly is or not, but I do love it when pieces come with a neat story! 

This piece was in terrible disrepair, but underneath all of the old fabric, old padding, and many layers of dirt and dust was a completely solid oak frame. 

Many frames may have oak as the show wood (the pretty wood you see around the upholstery), but most have different (and lower cost) types of wood for the frame that is covered by upholstery. 

The history on Judge Roy Bean is quite interesting. And if it was in fact a chair he had owned, I would imagine it had “seen” some interesting things during that time.  

Judge Roy Bean, known as the “Law West of the Pecos,” was quite the character in the American West during the late 1800s. Born in Kentucky on August 27, 1825, he eventually made his way to Texas. There, he became famous for his offbeat approach to justice and his unique interpretation of the law.

As someone who loves Western history, I was pretty interested in the story this piece came with.

The frame design, padding materials, and fabric seemed to coordinate with the dates of its potential glory-days which took my imagination and investigation skills to another level. I saw this one more as a time capsule than a piece of upholstered furniture housing spiders and mice.

After tearing down all of the old fabric and padding, the frame was sanitized, stripped of the old finish and stain then repaired, re-stained, and re-sealed. 

After being refinished, it was then reupholstered. 

It received all new webbing and padding. Then, I had been holding onto a few yards of this western, horse and buffalo fabric (that was no longer being produced), and this was the perfect piece for it. 

While it had originally had attached cushions filled with horse hair and straw, a tight seat and back gave the frame a better flow with this specific fabric and pattern repeat. 

The outside back was finished off with a hair on cowhide in coordinating colors and some oversized decorative nails.