Not a Recaro seat....

It's a tractor seat or a seat from an implement that was dragged behind a horse or a tractor. The farm hand was expected to sit on the cold iron for uip to 10 hours or more. The design of tractor seats hardly changed until the 1960's!

The Walter A. Wood seat was from a binder, a machine that cut, gathered and bundled corn into string tied parcels that were 'stooked' together to dry and mature before going through the thresher. It was made in Hoosick Falls in New York State and was found in North Carolina by a friend of mine. He was so disappointed that the customs people didn't stop him with it (in 1999) when he brought it over. It is one of my more intricate seats. The only other I knew of was in a farm yard at Stool End in Langdale but some blighter stole it before I could.

Just visible is a Pierce seat that came from near Sligo and the Victor seat came from a restaurant wall in Killarney! The owner was chatting with us and asked what we'd been doing on our holiday. MrsDB amused herself by telling how she'd been looking for tractors seats (haha) whereupon the owner went out the back and produced three of them and handed them over. In return I was to source out some old locks and keys in the UK for him.

It was three years later - 2002 - when I had enough for the trade and my daughter was in Killarney so she handed the locks over. The owner was gobsmacked saying that he never expected to hear from me again. 'Faith in human race' conversations followed and my daughter and husband got a free dinner out of it. I believe the owner went on to rebuild Killarney Castle.

Every seat tells a story as they're unique pieces of ironmongery sadly rarely seen for sale these days.