The story of the Chesterfield is one of class and grit, qualities that epitomise Timothy Oulton's approach to life. During Tim Oulton's early years in the antiques trade, he'd jump on every old Chesterfield he could find even the broken ones, restoring them to new. It's an obsession that stayed with him.

The mythology around the Chesterfield is a fog. Some attribute its invention to an English Lord Stanhope, the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, who was fed up of creasing his suit when he sank into upholstery. Being a bit of a trendsetter, he reportedly commissioned a local craftsman to come up with a cunning yet comfortable solution: The Chesterfield.

In the 1800s, the Chesterfield became the original “therapist’s couch” in the office of Sigmund Freud, the grandfather of psychoanalysis. He initially used a Chesterfield couch in his hypnosis sessions with patients. The sofa was key to Freud’s methods, as he would get his patients totally and utterly relaxed while lying comfortably, enabling him to extract their innermost thoughts and dreams.

Imagine the interesting people who would have sat on Winston Churchill’s Chesterfield at his office in Whitehall.  After many years of use and bearing witness to many “for your eyes only” moments, the British wartime prime minister’s historic sofa recently sold at auction for over £7,000, despite being valued at just £80 in its threadbare state.