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THE DIGEST
Second Hand September Spotlight: Sam Wood
Artist Sam Wood has reimagined a pair of Victorian birch antique chairs with bold gestural sweeps of colour and observational drawing. For Second Hand September, these one-of-one pieces celebrate how vintage furniture can preserve history whilst expressing contemporary creative vision.
Two Victorian birch antique chairs. Victorian-era craftsmanship meets contemporary artistic practice.
Artist Sam Wood saw them not as furniture to sit on, but as canvas. For our Sit Differently campaign, he approached the pair with his signature visual language: bold gestural sweeps of colour, overlaid with line-based observational drawing. Each chair now has its own distinct personality while speaking the same artistic vocabulary.
This isn't artwork that erases history. Wood has preserved the original patina, the cracks, the marks of previous owners. These imperfections are part of the chairs' character, and central to their beauty.
"I deal with history every day in my work, whether that's looking at architecture, ancient artefacts, or landscapes shaped by human lives," Sam explains. "I see the same character in vintage furniture. It bears the marks of its previous owners and tells its own story through marks, cracks and patina. I kept these in the pieces I've selected, and they are part of their joy."
For Sam, choosing these particular chairs wasn't random. They sat somewhere between domestic dining chair and something grander, reminding him of the iconic chairs at Romano's at Simpsons in The Strand. "I'm always working between domestic and commercial spaces," he reflects. "They jumped out at me immediately."
"I hope the future owners find the distinct personalities of the pair inspiring," Sam says. "I'd be interested to see two rooms designed around each one's individual voice."
This is what "buying better, not more" means to an artist. "Shopping around really is important. To me, buying better means waiting for the right piece to speak to you, rather than just going to a big retailer and filling gaps you think you have. Take your time, fall in love with the right thing, and hang on to it."
Discover the Collection
Shop the full Sit Differently collection here
