Howard Keith Original Diplomat Sofa By HK London Diplomat Mid Century Vintage Retro MCM

New Stock ✅

Howard Keith Original Diplomat Sofa By HK London Diplomat Mid Century Vintage Retro MCM

An extremely rare and beautiful late 1970s Howard Keith Diplomat three seater sofa.

This mid century icon of a sofa is upholstered in its original geometric cream and black striped fabric, which has been professionally deep cleaned and restored.

The “Sereno Stripe” fabric is known to be one of the most desirable he did and highly sought after.

This is the same fabric as the one featured in the Elton John biopic “Rocketman” where Taron Egerton is sat on his private plane.

Complete with its “HK” labels to the underside and come with their original 5 small scatter cushions.

The arms and back are removable for ease of transport and getting through doorways etc.

Dimensions
Height - 69cm (27 inches)
Width - 259cm (102 inches)
Depth - 107cm (42 inches)
Height - 69cm (27 inches)
Seat Height - 41cm (16 inches)

The HK Diplomat was quickly considered a classic sofa design and was sold by retailers such as Harrods. The sofa was included in a Classics exhibition at Heal & Son Ltd London store as early as 1981. They were famously owned by Princess Anne as well as Lord Edward Davenport.

Designed by John Home in 1970 for HK Furniture Ltd (also known as HK Designs and HK London)

The Diplomat sofa also featured in Lewis (Michael Caine) and Elizabeth’s (Glenda Jackson) living room in The Romantic Englishwoman.

A pair of these sofas in the Sereno stripe was also used in an ABBA photoshoot.

Howard Keith was born Hans Krebs in 1902 in Germany and changed his name when he came to England around 1933, presumably to escape Nazi Germany.

Founded in 1933 by Howard Keith, HK established a name for high-quality upholstered products. Howard Keith was a designer and maker of stylish upholstered furniture producing designs for a great number of companies.

Chairs like the Encore, Viking and Bambino and lounge seating such as Diplomat, Barbican and Cloud ensured Howard Keith’s position as one of the country’s top furniture designers in the 1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s.
Keith’s company was highly successful in making modern designs for domestic sofas and chairs well into the 1970s, before becoming one of Europe’s top high-end contract upholstery manufacturer.

HK designs provided furniture for the QE2, Marlborough House, The Royal Train during the Queen’s jubilee year, the States of Jersey Parliament, the Stock Exchange Boardroom, BP’s headquarters and supplies leather seating for the Portcullis House, new parliament building at Westminster.

Royal patrons such as Princess Margaret, celebrities and pop stars such as Elton John and Abba, embassies and exclusive hotels, and even the QE2 all took their delivery of Howard Keith furniture during the 60s, 70s and 80s.

In the 1970s, HK started manufacturing high-end conference tables and executive desks and became known for craftsmanship, quality and design winning contracts for major blue-chip organizations such as The Bank of England, The Stock Exchange, Barclays and BP. In 2000, HK made the news desk for BBC South East.

Today, the company still specializes in high-quality, custom-made executive and conference room furniture.

National and international delivery is available at an extra cost which we can organise on your behalf.

Collection in person is welcome. We are West of Cambridge in Bourn CB23.

Please message before purchasing to confirm delivery costs.

Please note that vintage furniture may have some slight imperfections, which is to be expected in keeping with its age, as we do not offer returns on items sold.