Carol Bolton: It's Eclectic. It's Exciting.
It's Expanding. And Now It's Eglomise!

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For seven years Carol Bolton has brought to premier furniture crafter E.J. Victor and its upholstery customers eclectic ensembles of collages that restore aging beauty from a by gone era of elegance. Her magnificent seating, using imaginative mixing of fabrics, colors and textures skillfully applied to frames, launched a style that defined a new category.

Carol Bolton's October 2003 introductions only strengthen the already enormously successful collection. Her 10 new groups creatively combine pretend furs, beads, vintage brocades, Victorian crochet, silks, lace, corset applications and gathered ruffles. Two exceptional cocktail tables with eglomise tops complete the offering.

As a package, it is a subtle nod to the world of vintage culture.

"Overall, the collections invite a sense of losing oneself from the present and experiencing the feel of a different era," Carol said. "Each piece evokes a feeling of aged worn elegance seen in the use of thread worn tapestries, vintage brocades and heavily painted carved frames. Every setting evokes a nostalgic aura felt by everyone who visits the showroom."

An example of this, she said, is the Eliza McMichael sofa. "Inspired by our friend's Grandmother's house- swept bare floors, clean windows with barely a wisp of draping, lazy ceiling fans, simple fabrics, the colors of peppermint and farmhouse simplicity," she said. "This is the sofa that everyone remembers being their favorite at the family farmhouse . . . equally at home in the city. It could be English or could be French. It is frumpy, comfy and the best seat in the house."

Another standout is the Pretty Pearl sofa. "The story is faded elegance," Carol said. "It used to be really formal, and now has aged to perfection. It has all of your favorite neutral colors, all in one palette.

"Look for the intricate ribbon embellishment on the seat cushion of the sofas," she said. "This treatment originally enabled the Paris fashion houses to apply beads and sequins much faster than by hand."

Inspirations from Paris led to the development of two occasional tables Carol saw at flee markets in that city. Both tables have exposed-wood frames but tops featuring the art of eglomise, reverse painting on glass. The images are distress to create a worn yet comfortable and heartfelt look that blends ideally with the upholstery.

"We kept seeing those pieces in the Paris flee market," Carol said. "One of them has an old rug image that looks like it's barely there anymore, that the rug is worn down to the burlap in some places. And the other is really a memory of a rug that looks literally as old as the hills. It is very, very original."

Originality is one of the significant design and style characteristics that has made Carol Bolton's upholstering technique some of the most copied in the industry. But the imitators cannot get it right. Why?

"I believe that our mixes and collages are still different because we do it so well," Carol said. "It doesn't look contrived. Even if there are 12 fabrics on a sofa, it still looks micromatic.

Edward W. Phifer, III, Joseph B. Manderson and John Victor Jokinen founded E.J. Victor in 1990 in Morganton, NC. Together, the founders created a corporate culture that maintains an unwavering commitment to preserving time-honored, local construction methods used to create exquisite furniture for the home.