BEST SEAT in the HOUSE

We might not all feel quite as protective of our chairs as the woman I once heard of at a hacienda in Mexico, whose seat at the head of the dining table had been left empty when she died. If anyone dared take her place, she had warned, she would haunt them. Many of us have a favourite perch, however. Like Goldilocks, we’ve tried chairs that are too big, too small, too hard, too soft, too high or too low before settling on something that’s ‘just right’.

In the 21st century, that search might seem redundant. Anyone with an internet browser and a credit card can take their pick from a vast range of mass-produced models and have it delivered to the door in the blink of a ‘buy now’ button. Yet crafting a chair that’s just right remains the goal for a group of British designers making modern investment pieces