Interesting. Following.

I can't comment on the chairs themselves, but a REAL leopard skin coat? I don't think I have ever seen one.

They are like a faded beauty...a bit wrinkled with a scar from an injury badly repaired, but a bit of plastic surgery would fix it. Should you dye her hair red and paint her cheeks....or gently repair her to a gentler more subdued version fo what she was?

I vote for keeping the leopard coat intact....and redoing in a soft print....ot matlesse.

Kootenaycapable you must be young. There was a time every chic woman had one. I believe 1940s Jackie Kennedy was often photographed in one, making them very popular for those that could afford them

nyboy -- it was when Jackie was in the White House -- she DID have a leopard coat! It wasn't a print either but real leopard and yes, because she had one they did become popular among the moneyed set.

Wow I love the chairs but I have to confess to being a little more fascinated by the coat. The animal lover in me is repulsed and the style lover is intrigued...also the antique lover in me doesn't want you to mess with either of them! Anyway the fabric that is on the chairs looks like it could be special. Make sure it isn't before reupholstering, and if you do reupholster, scalamandre has a fabulous leopard print, an homage to your grandmother that WONT make her spin in her grave!!

I get how cool animal prints look on super traditional furniture, in this case I think the dark tones and strong pattern will totally overshadow the delicate woodwork. I love juxtapositions more than the average bear, this is not a good one for me. Gorgeous chairs. Great find.

Ps the chairs look Italian to me. Send a snap to Sotheby’s and see what their furniture people say.

Even if the fur might look good it won’t work on those chairs. Too many curved details including skin would be too thick to work well. I wonder about the authenticity. Was there any paperwork documenting their providence? The wood under photos looks too white and new? I could be wrong but there are scammers out there.

Yeah Zalco is 100% right about this being a bad juxtaposition. The star here is the woodwork and paint so something that highlights those but doesn't overwhelm.

The fabric looks like antique aubusson. I would at least try to salvage enough of it to make two very special pillows.

Love the chairs! I also vote to keep the coat intact. Back in the 1920s, one of my uncles dated a woman who was (so they say) quite beautiful. She had a leopard coat and danced on the table at a party once according to my mother who was a young girl at the time. Keep the coat!

Nice looking chairs! I'd keep the rare fur coat, use something else for the chairs. leopard fur is one of the furs illegal to sell as someone has already mentioned. These are the furs you can't sell:

Leopard fur

Tiger fur

Ocelot fur

Cheetah fur

Bear fur

Gorilla fur

Monkey fur (all kinds)

Seal fur (unless you’re in Canada)

Sea otter fur (it’s a marine mammal)

It's not a good idea to sit on furs, you'd damage the guard hair, have worn spots. That's why fur coat owners never sit on their furs.

Refinish the wood work and reupholster with a non animal.

Thank you Thank you I love these chairs and would never strip or repaint if original I love something to show its age, some people will get a antique then have it refinished to look new.. Knowing nothing about fabric just assumed because of age it was replaced at some time.. While only 1 small rip it looks moldy and dirty to me.I always said its one thing to live with your own dirt another thing to live with someone else's dirt.. I learn so much here, I am glad others also like these chairs. So far I have possible French German or Italian . Do you think they where part of a dinning room set or seating in like a music or ball room ? Cyn427 LOL that could have been my grandmother she was very beautiful, very wild and loved to dance. My grandmother claim the coat was given to her after a fashion show she was in wearing the coat, the owner wanted her to have it. Not so sure. I have many photos of her in the coat ( point a camera at her she poised) she was a very vain woman, I loved her deeply and still miss her. When cleaning out her apartment i was at a lost what to do with coat. My sisters didn't want it. Because leopard was never a farmed fur but harvested from wild selling or giving away did not seem right. For years it sat in back of my closet. My thought was if I used it on chairs I would see it everyday reminding me of Nana.

Here's Jackie in the coat. photo

Didn't she also do same for pillbox hat ?

Beautiful chairs!

Horrifying backstory about leopard fur. I had no idea anyone would ever wear a real leopard and assumed all the coats in the 60s were a print. Wow!

The chairs look like dining side chairs to me. I would just gently clean the chair wood parts with weak solution of Dawn dish detergent and luke warm water. Test small area and see if you remove too much patina. The upholstery i would test small spot and back edge with water. If it works, very gently wash off surface with very damp cloth. Try not to soak fabric or padding. If you decide to recover i would do something similar or a rose colored velvet. A soft yellow velvet would work too. I think I might hunt for a vintage fabric. It has to be fairly thin to accomplish a good fit into the chair base.

What a beautiful coat! Thanks for the link Yayagal!

I love how Jacqueline Kennedy wore long black gloves, black scarf and black pill box her signature look. Always classic styling.

Oh, I only paid attention to the coat, have to go back check on Jackie. Very classy indeed!

I was shocked 8 leopards to make 1 coat

I don't think they used belly fur for those high priced coats. I think they used ""skin on skin method" process on Jackie's coat.

" Fur coats are made by one of two processes: the letting-out technique or the skin-on-skin method. The letting-out process involves slicing a skin into narrow diagonal strips and then sewing them together to form a longer and narrower strip that will run the full length of a coat. The skin-on-skin process is much simpler and consists of sewing one full skin to another. After sewing, the fur is glazed, which is accomplished by dampening the fur, arranging the hair in the desired direction, and then slowly drying it to keep the hairs aligned. "

-https://www.britannica.com/topic/fur-animal-skin#ref114471

EIGHT LEOPARDS!!! :,(

While I would never advocate making a leopard skin coat, I can’t help but feel that preventing a trade in coats which have provenance to show they were made, say, more than thirty years ago is like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Not being able to sell such a coat or cross state lines with it isn’t going to bring back those dead leopards.

If the fabric on the chairs is still in good condition and you like it, nyboy, why don’t you take it off the chairs while you work on the frames, then give it a good hand washing before reupholstering the chairs with it?

Idk colleenoz limiting the market for the existing coats limits a taste for new ones IMO. so if the people who have them don't want to wear them they can't be sold to someone who will...god help the leopards if the kardashians start wearing these...

These are the tips on how to keep fur coats. Hopefully nyboy's leopard coat will lasts for 100 more years. It's a rare item to keep it in the family from one generation to the next. Store it well and don't sit on it! :-)

https://www.wikihow.com/Store-a-Fur-Coat

Kardashians do have these coats, not real leopard though.

https://www.eonline.com/news/740627/kim-kardashian-s-mini-me-north-west-catches-snowflakes-on-her-tongue-wears-a-huge-fur-coat

http://www.stylebistro.com/lookbook/Kourtney+Kardashian/VA0axxFj1Vh/Outerwear/angle/mgRn1r1QNsI

http://www.stylebistro.com/lookbook/Kourtney+Kardashian/9R3PhcR7U-O/Outerwear/angle/0O18uD5VulU

What throws me about those chairs is that they look to be as large and the seat as wide as the reproductions today. People were so much smaller and thinner a couple hundred years ago, and their chairs were too. Let us know what you find out!!

Me too girlwithponytail. There is something about these chairs that makes me curious of true origin.

Parlor chairs like that were generally 2 sizes....for a gentleman and a lady and of course the one for the lady was smaller....as one of these chairs appears to be.
As a young woman I too wanted a leopard, ro cheetah or ocelot coat....called often "spotted cat". Thank heavens i couldn't afford it....and later when perhaps I could have, I spent the $$ on a trip to Africa which cured me of wanting anything made from any part of a wild animal.

I remember going through this issue when I had my piano restored and it had ivory keys. The piano in the Governor’s mansion of my state was also being restored - the problem. You can’t ship ivory keys for sale or donation across state line. So a friend of mine and I donated our ivory keys to the governor’s piano restoration project. Now every kid who goes through the mansion on a school tour finds out why ivory keys are such a bad idea and how it harmed elephants. There are exceptions to the law - but you had better check because the fines are very high - like $250,000 per violation. I remember the hoops we went through to donate the ivory keys and I think our only saving grace was that the ivory keys remained “in state” and secondly were not “sold.” But we got verification in writing from the state game warden. The chair needs some restoration work because the joints look weak. You don’t want to sit on it and it collapses.

Don't ask me why, but I got to thinking about this fascinating dilemma yesterday, and how I am simultaneoulsy revolted by and in love with your coat. I don't want it hidden in the closet but I don't want it chopped up either. And I thought, how about hanging it on a coat tree? Or thrown carelessly over a sofa arm? Cuddle up in it while reading a book? Let it be seen and loved in all its current glory, let its beauty and the memory of your grandmother grace your home and make you smile every day. The only problem I see with this is that I would be tempted to wear it out if it was dangled in front of my face every day :P

ps any update on the chairs?