Joseph van Benten is the third of seven children born to an accountant and a seamstress in Indiana. When his sense of adventure brought him to Massachusetts, he took a job teaching in the woodshop at Chelsea High School in 1975 and decided “to try to make it as a woodworker.” Van Benten sought to turn customers’ ideas into skillfully crafted pieces of furniture, as durable as they are beautiful. He established his small business, Joseph van Benten Furnituremakers, in 1978 and worked for nearly five decades until his recent retirement in 2021. We encourage you to experience the soft-yet-sturdy curved form of this settee by taking a seat.

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