Recently purchased a sofa in Brompton Leather, or looking to purchase one? Where does it come from? How do you take care of it? Here are some answers.

A Bit of a Brompton History. The original Brompton leather is produced by a tannery in Vicenza, Italy called Concernia Bernado Finco Spa. The tannery has been in business for five generations and uses a highly guarded, 45-step secret process to produce the leather. The leather is distributed by only one distributor in North America. Brompton leather was brought to the attention of the public by the Famous Catalog Brand. The well known retailer features Brompton leather on many deep seat sofa styles such as the Original Lancaster sofa, Maxwell sofa, Kensington sofa, Belgian Slope Arm sofa, Belgian Track Arm sofa, the Churchill Leather chair and others. The Lancaster sofa and the Maxwell sofa are among the most popular styles at Restoration Hardware. Restoration Hardware features the Original Lancaster sofa and Maxwell sofa in many sizes. The Original Lancaster sectional and Maxwell sectional from Restoration Hardware are also available in a variety of sizes and configurations and all in the original Brompton leather.

We are often asked, “Who makes the furniture for Casco Bay Furniture?” Most retailers in the furniture industry tend to stay with large, well-known manufacturers to build their furniture. We chose to have our furniture built by specialty manufacturers for several reasons. To begin with, we like to have a close personal relationship with our factory owner and our in-house product developer. This relationship is difficult to obtain with a large manufacturer. As a result, our leather furniture is built to our standards and specifications which is one of the highest standards in the industry.

What you should know about Casco Bay Furniture’s Manchester leather sofa featured in Brompton Cocoa

The Manchester Sofa has a classic rolled arm design. This style was made popular by Restoration Hardware’s Lancaster sofa and other large catalog companies. This style has been one of the most popular sofas in the industry for decades. Compare the quality of our Manchester Leather Sofa to Restoration Hardware’s Lancaster Leather Sofa and those offered by other large catalog companies and retailers. Our version of this sofa, The Manchester is handcrafted by Jonathan Wesley Furniture, in a state of the art manufacturing facility in Taylorsville, North Carolina. The owner of our factory has been making high quality upholstered furniture for over 42 years. Prior to owning his own factory he was the plant manager for Taylor King Furniture owned by his family and also located in Taylorsville, NC. Taylor King was later purchased by Hancock and Moore where he remained after the sale prior to opening Jonathan Wesley Furniture.

Often when people go out to buy a new sofa or chair, their first consideration is how it looks and how it feels. Yet, I have found that buying a sofa is kind of like buying a car. If you want something that is going to last over time, you need to know what is “under the hood.”

What You Should Know About Our Kingsbridge Tufted Sofa

The Kensington Tufted Sofa is a classic Chesterfield design made popular by several Catalog Companies. Compare our Kingsbridge Leather Sofa to the Restoration Hardware’s Kensington Leather Sofa,  the Arhaus Wessex Leather Sofa, Pottery Barn’s Leather Chesterfield and other tufted leather sofas. Our version of this sofa, the Kingsbridge is handcrafted in a state of the art manufacturing facility in Taylorsville, North Carolina. It is manufactured by Jonathan Wesley Furniture. The owner of our factory Tim Shook and his uncle, Norm Shook founded a company in the early 70’s called Taylor King Furniture, considered to be one of the premier upholstery manufacturers in the industry. They later sold Taylor King to Hancock and Moore. After the sale Tim continued on as the plant Manger for Taylor King , eventually leaving and reopening as Jonathan Wesley Furniture. Coincidentally Tim’s brother replaced Tim as the plant manger for Taylor King. Several of Tim’s upholsterers joined him at Jonathan Wesley. As you can see from this little bit of history, our factory owner has been making high quality upholstered furniture for 43 years.

Dear Friends,

We have been fortunate enough to receive some wonderful testimonials over the years from customers who are close to raving fans.

Dear Casco Bay Friends…delivery yesterday completed!! What a sofa! We are delighted…wonderful work!! Bristol Sofa, 89″W x 39″D x 29″H, with Tufted Seat and Small Antique Brass Nails. Cheers…Chuck (chuck.frost46@gmail.com)

Updated – If you are in the middle of shopping for leather furniture you may have run across derogatory comments about Casco Bay on myfurnitureforum.com.

It turns out that the forum, in addition to being educational, is a gateway to sell leather furniture in direct competition to Casco Bay. The primary leather and fabric upholstery brands sold on myfurnitureforum.com are Taylor King and Hancock and Moore as well as Bradington Young and Century.