Connolly remembered
10/09/2012
A reader asked the columnist for his opinion about leather furniture in people’s homes these days and asked if this were a new trend. It may have been good news for struggling upholstery leather suppliers if Sir David had said yes and offered his approval. Instead, he said: “Leather armchairs and sofas are beyond the pale in one’s home – unless they are at least 50 years old and well worn. Otherwise, they should only be found in the front or the back of a car. Particularly nasty is leather in black, and laughable attempts at distressing those cheap samples to make them look antique.”
He said that if cheaper leather furniture in modern homes is becoming a trend, “the police should be called to arrest [it]”.
He went on to say that only Rolls-Royce motor cars should be allowed to use black leather “because they use the Connolly brand which exudes a scent of luxuriance that intensifies over the years”.
The Connolly name used to be synonymous with Rolls-Royce interiors, but the family-run firm, which also made the leather upholstery for the seats in the Houses of Parliament in London, closed its tannery in Canterbury in June 2002 after operating for seven generations. Surrey-based distributor UK Hide acquired the rights to distribute Connolly leather in 2005 and said at that time that it had taken possession of “extensive stocks” of original Connolly hides in its Autolux and Autocalf ranges. UK Hide still supplies these products to the automotive market.
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