Pork Shoulders and Ribbon Chairs - From the Inexpensive to the Ridiculously Overpriced

Happy weekend to one and all. DH found a sale, and brought home two large racks of pork ribs and an 8 pound pork shoulder. I'm cooking it tomorrow, and marinading it as soon as I finish with dinner tonight. He was thinking I'd just put it into the crockpot, and was quite upset when I said I'm cooking it in the oven. But an 8 pound shoulder! I have a small, round crockpot which, at the most, could accommodate half of that size, and probably should be less. So no ... I'm using the oven. Hopefully we won't have a dreadfully hot day, because the oven does heat up the house. 

If everything goes as planned, it should be succulent 
and moist, but flavorful. We'll have to see what 
happens, but I'm hopeful. Fingers crossed. It's an 
inexpensive cut of meat, and many things can go 
wrong - LOL. 

I found a recipe that I think will be a good one, and got all of the ingredients yesterday, except I forgot the fresh rosemary, so I'll be dropping by the store again first thing this morning to get that. Everything else I either had on hand or picked up yesterday. The marinate calls for anchovies, something I'm not very fond of. But rather than have an open tin that will go bad, I picked up a tube of anchovy paste instead. That should work just fine, since the marinade is more like a flavor paste that I smear all over the pork and then wrap up to allow time to soak in and tenderize the meat. 

Pierre Paulin designed and released the ribbon chair for 
Artfort in 1966. It's a SUPER comfortable chair, and ours 
have had a remarkable assortment of people sitting in 
them for over three decades. Follow this link if you want 
more information on the chair and designer. 
https://hivemodern.com/pages/product918/ribbon-chair-f582-pierre-paulin-artifort?gclid=CjwKCAjws7WkBhBFEiwAIi168ycndiwuulXUOIoJ5zLxi04-JDZPcyQUCjuoFBomIf9BKZJbecOYohoCiMUQAvD_BwE

I checked by a local furniture upholsterer and restorer yesterday about my Pierre Paulin for Artfort ribbon chairs. I have two of these that we purchased in the early 1980's. We had them at the shop for years and years, it was our "companion" chair. One of several places where the friends or spouses of our shoppers could hang out while their companion was shopping. Over the years and many children, the chairs got trashed. We pulled them from active service after Covid, needing chairs that could easily be cleaned and sanitized instead. Now that we're closing, I need to get rid of the chairs. I can either sell them to an antique dealer "as is" (not a bad option), or find an upholsterer who can make them look new again, then sell them to a more upscale dealer. Looking online, I haven't seen a set of these for less than $3000, and many are upwards of $10,000. We got them on sale, cheap. 

As you can tell, my two ribbon chairs have had some 
heavy use. They need new foam and new stretch 
fabric. The upholsterer I visited said she couldn't 
see any way to connect the foam to the framework, 
so she turned it down. Admittedly, she was just 
looking at this photo, but she wasn't excited about 
working on them. I want someone who loves them 
as much as I do. 

I'll probably contact 10-20 antique stores to see if they're interested. I've had antique dealers drop in to look at them over the years - just people walking down the street who happened to see them. At this point, I'd happily take $500 per chair. I don't recall exactly what we paid for them, but I'm sure it wasn't much more than that. Then I can let the antique dealer figure out how to restore them back to prime condition. They're super comfortable chairs, but won't fit into my decor at my house. 

This particular chair is available right now for a bit over 
$5000. I've seen sets of two going for anywhere from $15,000 
to $30,000 for the set. It's rather crazy what the pricing is on 
these, but they are fabulous. I'll continue to search, but I might 
end up selling them to an antique dealer and let them deal 
with the hassle of getting them fixed up for resale. 

So that's going to be my adventures for the weekend. Cooking a large piece of pig and gathering contact information for upholstery and for antique dealers. Whoopie - LOL. I suppose it's better than being bored, although I really never have any time to be bored in any case. Have a wonderful weekend and I'll be back on Monday. Slava Ukraini.