Well, I have to admit my curiosity got the better of me on this thread so I called up Jimmy Moore (of Hancock and Moore) to ask him about Lane quality. Now of course, Jimmy is biased towards what he builds, but he's probably the smartest man in North Carolina on how to make a high quality piece of furniture, especially leather furniture.

He told me that Lane is no where near a premium quality piece, that it's made in China, using drop-in spring grids, cowhide leather, and really not built to last.

Now the cowhide part got me to ask him some more questions, and I learned something new today.

H&M uses only Steer Hide, Top Grain, "A" Grade. (apparently there are grades A through D at the wholesale level, which I did not know before, either). There is no cowhide used at H&M. I asked him why and he said that "cowhide stretches too much over time, that the steer hides are much stiffer. Much of the belly leather in cowhide is full of varicose veins from the udder area and it makes the leather looks like it has 'worms'. It also has too much elasticity and stretches three to four more times than steer hide. You only want to buy leather furniture made from steer hide otherwise the furniture looks terrible in a few years."

HA! Try THAT on your salesman at your local furniture store sometime, that should really get a blank stare. "Is this made from cowhide or steer hide?" Until today, I couldn't have answered that, either.

Jimmy went on and on, but I'll spare you the rest. Suffice to say that in his opinion you're not getting a very good value for your money.