At Casco Bay Furniture, we are often asked about the history of the Chesterfield sofa. Here is a bit of that history.

The word “Chesterfield” is a term used today by many in North American and particularly in Canada to describe what most of us commonly refer to as a sofa. But the term has much older origins. It is generally thought that the Fourth Earl of Chesterfield, Lord Philip Stanford, who lived from 1694 to 1773 and died at the age of 79, commissioned his furniture maker to build a leather sofa that would not wrinkle the clothes of a gentlemen sitting upright, but in comfort.

John can you tell me how you started building custom made furniture?

Well Richard I started 44 years ago I think it was in 1972. My wife Penny and I opened a shop in Southern California. I was always an Artisan at heart. Before long I started making hand carved mirrors and folk art. With the encouragement of family and friends I began to enter my work in local art shows and before I knew I was traveling the country with my creations. I was fortunate enough to win many awards at these shows.

As I mentioned earlier, when I first joined the furniture industry I spent a short time on the road as part of my training calling on furniture stores. I traveled Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. In those days there were no GPS navigation systems for your car and cell phones were still kind of new. I was lucky if I remembered to bring a map.

When I first joined the furniture industry I spent a short time on the road as a rep calling on furniture stores. As I was in training I wasn’t given the best territory. I traveled Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.  It wasn’t exactly the best territory, but the customers were friendly, the scenery was beautiful, and home base of Portsmouth, New Hampshire was convenient. It turned out to be a good way to learn the business. Surprisingly I was paid well and, to be honest, I didn’t work too hard. I took a lot of time off.