Steal the look: the Canadian midcentury ‘Scoop’ chair from Sterling Point | Canada Voices

Created by Canadian Megan Park, Prime Video’s Sterling Point is set and filmed in Ontario’s Muskoka cottage country. The coming-of-age drama follows two privileged New Yorkers: 17-year-old Annie (Ella Rubin) and her twin brother, Connor (Keen Ruffalo), who inherit an island from their estranged grandfather.

The setting is pure, unfiltered Canadiana. Canadian design aficionados, in particular, may have sat up a little straighter during an early episode that features a midcentury modern chair by Toronto manufacturer R. Huber. Spotted at a thrift store by Annie (and name-checked twice), the 1968 Huber lounge chair is known as the “Scoop” because of its curved, cocoonlike seat.

The storyline was in the script, but the idea to use the Huber lounge chair came from production designer Zazu Myers. “I loved the idea of including an iconic Canadian midcentury piece for this storyline, and the name is particularly fun to say,” she said. “We wanted something that could bring a pop of vivid colour to the cottage,” Myers, who grew up in Muskoka herself, credited the set decorating team led by Kerri Wylie with sourcing and reupholstering the chair in a blue shade that stands out against the dramatic Canadian Shield.

Spying the Scandi-inspired chair in episode three, Annie gasps, “Peacock blue Huber Scoop chair! This would be, like, five thousand dollars in New York.”

Would it, really? Yes, according to Denville, N.J., vintage dealer Eva Goldfarb of Mod City Madness. She listed sculptural accent chairs by Adrian Pearsall and Vladimir Kagan as items of similar vintage. Comparatively the Scoop is “priced very well” in the tri-state area she services. “With vintage furniture it’s like collecting cars or coins – it’s collecting history,” she said.

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If Sterling Point local Ellis (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie), who accompanies Annie to the thrift store, is nonplussed by her furniture find, it’s because he’s grown up seeing plenty of the chairs. The Huber chair, usually sold with an ottoman as a set, isn’t particularly scarce.

Dealer William Pritchard of Victoria, B.C.’s Pray for Modern said he finds the chairs fairly regularly and has probably sold a hundred of them, even as he’s watched their popularity steadily rise. When he started his career 15 years ago, the Scoop was seen as a “cool vintage chair you would sell for $500 to $600.” In the past five years, he’s noticed an uptick in interest in vintage and in the Scoop in particular. It’s currently on the wish list of an overseas client, an architectural firm in Switzerland.

For Kate Eisen of Toronto furniture store INabstracto, the Scoop was one of the first pieces that piqued her interest in Canadian design. She was among the first to reintroduce it to the market in the early 2000s, paying roughly $100 for the first one. The store’s most recent set sold for $5,500.

“Everyone wants one, everyone’s got to have an original,” she said, though most are restored and upgraded with new foam and fabric. A factor in the chair’s current price point is its distinctive, deep button-tufting, which makes it challenging (and expensive) to reupholster. Still, it’s what dealers like Pritchard call a “very keepable” chair.

How likely would it be to stumble upon a Scoop at a rural vintage shop, as Annie does in Sterling Point? “Value Village? Zero per cent,” said Paul McManus of Decade Five Furniture in Whitby, Ont. “If you were in an old cottage-country thrift place, there’s a chance. But it’s fairly unlikely.” The dealer was about to hit an estate sale in Gananoque, in the Thousand Islands, and he joked that odds were he would find a Scoop chair in the basement rec room.

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For the most part, he’s buying from the original owners, who are either downsizing or have come to discover the chair is valuable, “and it’s been in their basement for more than 30 years and hasn’t been sat in,” he said.

McManus noticed the tide turn during COVID-19 lockdowns. In the early 2000s “they would have been at the bottom of people’s driveways – there was no market.” Later when he started dealing, he would buy them for $200 to $300 and sell them for $700. By his estimate, he has restored and sold more than 65 sets since 2020. Some have gone for as little as $2,000, with $5,000 being the peak price for restored and reupholstered Scoops.

“It’s become more valuable than the average imported Danish lounge chair from that era,” he said, including those by Grete Jalk or Arne Vodder. In recent weeks, he’s fielded queries from as far away as California.

What’s more scarce is the Huber Scoop’s documented history. The consensus among Canadian midcentury modern experts is that the chair first appeared in 1968, but the story of its design, production and distribution is little-known.

Prior to the Scoop, R. Huber was known for its teak side chairs. In 1963, Globe reporter Mary Jukes credited “the growing appreciation of domestic Scandinavian-influenced furniture” to the work of Canadian manufacturers including R. Huber. In 1965, another Globe article on the emerging taste for accent chairs praised Canadian-made examples, including a “Scandinavian-style” armchair by the Toronto manufacturer.

A Simpsons sales flyer from July, 1968, advertised a version in black vinyl or fabric for $179.98 (about $1,600 today). The department store touted the Scoop again the next year, “for the sleek, uncluttered look of teak furniture by Huber” – now with a matching moulded sofa. Swivel and rocking chair variations would soon follow.

The enduring affection for the Huber Scoop seems to be about nostalgia and memories – and great design, McManus pointed out. The chairs are famously comfortable, with the enveloping coziness of an Eames lounge chair. There’s also the aspect of their longevity.

“By the time we restore them, there’s no reason they can’t go on for another 60 years,” he said.

Good Canadian Value

We asked vintage experts for other midcentury Canadian pieces that won’t break the bank.

Kate Eisen of INabstracto favours Canadian-made Lotte lamps. Created by Danish immigrants Lotte and Gunnar Bostlund in 1957, the tri-lite table lamps feature beautifully glazed ceramic bases with spun fibreglass shades that cast a pretty light at night. The pieces regularly command four figures on e-commerce sites such as 1stDibs but cost less in Canada (around $375 to $1,500 for larger models). (INabstracto.com)

William Pritchard at Pray for Modern said one of the most slept-on Canadian midcentury designs is A.J. Donahue’s “Winnipeg” chair, which many have likened to George Nelson’s more famous Coconut lounge chair. (prayformodern.com)

Paul McManus recommended the dining set pieces by Deilcraft, from Kitchener, Ont., for their great value (the chairs are a favourite of his collector clients). Decade Five also refinishes the classic sideboard Deilcraft became known for, stripping the dark brown lacquer finish to reveal a walnut with lighter ash accents. (decadefivefurniture.ca)

Canadian interior stylist and designer Arren Williams’s collection with Quebec studio Renwil draws on midcentury design in pieces such as the Noto table lamp, which has similar proportions to the smaller Lotte lamp and comes in brown marble or beige travertine. (renwil.com)

If thrifting isn’t your thing, Ottawa upholstery firm Kessels has revived the Huber name, offering a new version crafted by Amish and Mennonite makers. (huberscoopchair.com)