Webbing is the strong woven tape stretched across the frame of a chair, sofa or stool to support the upholstery. It forms the foundation of a traditionally upholstered seat or back, on which springs, stuffing and the top cover are built.
Traditional upholstery webbing was woven from jute, linen or hemp and tacked to the frame in an interlaced grid, pulled taut with a webbing stretcher. In sprung seats of the Victorian period and later, coil springs were stitched onto the webbing, which carried the weight of the sitter. Black and white linen webbing is considered the best quality, while brown jute became common in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the twentieth century rubber and elasticated webbing was introduced for modern lightweight furniture. Old webbing eventually sags, rots or breaks, and a sagging seat often signals that re-webbing is required. Conservation-minded upholsterers try to retain original frames and, where possible, historic stuffing, and record evidence of earlier upholstery such as old tack holes. Buyers of antique seating should check beneath the seat, as the condition of the webbing reveals much about the state of the upholstery above.
