The History of the Chair
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Of all furniture objects, the chair might be the imperative one. While the majority of other objects (apart from the bed) are intended to support objects, the chair supports the human form. The term chair was viewed here in the common sense, from stool to throne to developed kinds including a bench and sofa, which may be seen as extended or connected chairs, and whose character (i.e., whether they are intended for sitting or reclining) is not overtly distinuishable.
The social history of the chair is as stimulating as its history as a creative art. The chair is not simply a physical support and/or an aesthetic object; it historically is a signifier of social placement. Within the past royal courts there were social differences between sitting on a chair with arms, or a chair with a back but without arms, and having to utilise a stool. During the 20th century, a director’s and/or manager’s chair has been regarded as an indicator of superior standing, and in democratic government debate the speaker sits on a raised platform.
In a furniture form, the chair is utilised for a number of various purposes. There are chairs structured to suit man’s age and physical capabilities (the high chair, the wheelchair) and to show his position in society (the executive chair, the throne). During historical days there were chairs for birthing (birth chairs); from the 20th century, there have been chairs to die in (the electric chair). There are chairs with one, two, three, and/or four legs, chairs with or without arms, and chairs with or without backs. We can have chairs that can be folded for easy storage, chairs on wheels, and chairs on runners.
Contemporary lifestyle has developed special chairs for automobiles and aircraft. All of these chair shapes has been adapted to suit to changing human needs. From its unique importance with man, the chair exists to its full meaning only when in employ. Although it does not make any difference to one’s appreciation of a cupboard or a set of drawers whether there are things inside or not, a chair is understood best and fairly regarded with a person sitting in it, for chair and sitter suit each other. Thus the individual parts of the chair were given labels likened to the elements of our human parts: arms, legs, feet, back, and seat.
Because the obvious purpose of a chair is to support your body, its worth is evaluated principally from how completely it does measure up to this practical job. In the build of the chair, the builder is restricted for certain static law and principal measurements. Within these rules, however, the chair maker has awesome freedom.
The history of the chair covers an epoch of several thousand years. There is evidence of civilizations that had significant chair shapes, as expressions of the premier object in the industries of handling and creativity. Out of these such civilisations, special mention can be made of ancient Egypt and Greece; China; Spain and The Netherlands in the 17th century; England in the 18th century; and France in the 18th century during the lives of Louis XV and Louis XVI.
Egypt
Two ancient Egyptian chair forms, both the structures of masterful scheme, are now seen from discoveries made in tombs. The first of the two is a four-legged chair with a back, the other a folding stool. The original Egyptian chair has four legs designed not unlike those of a particular animal, a curved seat, and leading to a sloping back supported from vertical stretchers. From this design a durable triangular construction was crafted. There was in our knowledge no significant differentiation from the construction of Egyptian thrones and chairs for typical peasantry. The only variation lies in the decorative ornamentation, in the evidence of pricey inlays. The Egyptian folding stool most probably was manufactured for an easily stored seat for soldiers. As a camp stool this kind persisted until much later points. But the stool also then was designed for the use of a ceremonial seat, its original history as a folding stool being forgotten. This can already be noted, from as early as 1366–57 BC in two stools, formed in ebony with ivory inlay work and gold mounts, from the tomb of Tutankhamen. They were constructed in the construction of folding stools but can not be folded because the seats are worked out of wood. The simplistic make of the folding stool, consisting of two frames that turn on metal bolts and have a seat of leather or fabric secured between them, came again but somewhat later during the Bronze Age folding chairs of Scandinavia and northern Germany. The most recognisable of this kind is the folding stool, made of ashwood, which is now at Guldhøj (National Museum in Copenhagen).
Greece and Rome
The iconic Greek chair, the klismos, is recognised not in any ancient specimen still extant but as seen from a trove of pictorial material. The best recognised is the klismos seen on the Hegeso Stele at the Dipylon burial location in outer Athens (c. 410 BC). This is a chair with a backward-sloping, curved backboard and four curving legs, only two of those could be shown. These curving legs were understood to have been created in bent wood and were likely to have been had to bear huge pressure from the weight of the sitter. The joints attaching the legs to the frame of the seat would have been therefore very strong and were overtly drawn.
The Romans borrowed from the Greek chair; existing statues of seated Romans offer evidence of a heavier and are a slightly less intricately constructed klismos. Both features, the light or the heavy, were popularised within the Classicist epoch. The klismos influence is seen in French Empire furniture, in English Regency, and in some kinds of marked uniqueness within Denmark and Sweden during 1800.
China
The past of the chair in China can not be followed as far back as the progression of the chairs in Egypt and Greece. From the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) an unbroken collection of drawings and works of art had been protected, detailing the interiors and outer parts of Chinese households and the kinds of furniture. Kept also since the 16th century are a number of chairs crafted of wood or lacquered wood, that bear an amazing similarity to pictures of previous chairs.
As was the case in Egypt, there were two iconic chair forms in China: a chair with four legs and a folding stool. The four-legged chair was constructed both with and without arms though always having its square seat and straight stiles (upright side supports) to give support to the back. In one image, though, the stiles could be slightly curved on top of the arms in order to conform correctly to the shape of the S-shaped back splat (the main upright of its back). Together, the three sections were mortised on the yoke-like top rail. Though the innovation of a back splat exercised an inspiration for English chairs within the Queen Anne period, wooden members that could only to a particular limit support corner joints (and then were loose in the result) indicate a design particular to Chinese chairs. The four legs pass through the seat frame, which finishes around the rounded staves. Members are round in section or have rounded edges—acknowledging maybe to the bamboo tradition. The seat is uncomfortable and might have had a plaited bottom. These chairs demanded of the sitter to hold themselves stiff and upright; for when too much pressure is exerted on the back, the chair has a tendency to fall. In patriarchal Chinese households of this epoch armchairs likely were kept for the senior people, for they were given great respect.
The Chinese folding stool is presumed to have been brought to China from the West. It does not vary that much from the Egyptian and Scandinavian folding stools, but it possesses a change in that the top rail is delicately joined to the two legs of the stool by a curved member, which is more often than not possessing metal mounts. From a Western understanding the resultant effect of both these furniture styles is stylized. The construction and decoration issues are combined in a manner that is both naïve and refined. The patchwork appearance is an upshot of the way that the individual members do not seem to have been fixed by means of either glue or screws, but have been mortised on one another and fixed in position in the style of a Chinese puzzle.
Spain: 17th century
The Golden Age of Spain of the 17th century also put its signature on the chair. Paintings project a design of chair with a relatively unrefined wooden frame; a back and seat, nailed on, possessing two layers of leather, with horsehair stuffing in between the layers, stitched to bring out a pattern of small pads. The front board and a related board in the back could be folded after unscrewing some small iron hooks. Therefore the chair was an easily portable piece of furniture in traveling which, during the same time, possessed the dignity of a four-legged, high-backed armchair.
The Netherlands: 17th century
A low, square, upholstered kind of chair is seen in engravings of the inside of rich Dutch homes by Abraham Bosse, a French artist, and in paintings by the Dutch artists Johannes Vermeer and Gerard Terborch. While this kind of chair is also found in countries where Dutch styles of interior decoration and Dutch furniture won critical acclaim, it is not held that the design actually started in The Netherlands. Typically, the legs of the chair will be smooth, round in section, and of slender shape; they are occasionally baluster-shaped (vase-shaped) or twisted. It is obviously a bourgeois piece of furniture and was crafted in large amounts, as can be seen from one of Abraham Bosse’s engravings, in which there is a row of those chairs lined up by a wall. The style asserts itself by virtue of its shapely proportions and delicate upholstery in gilt leather or fabric edged with fringes.
France and England: 17th and 18th centuries
The French Rococo chair in its most mature style—that is to say, as brought out in Paris around 1750—conquered most of Europe and was imitated or copied during the mid-20th century. The design owes such popularity to a combination of comfort and delicacy. The seat suits to the human body and grants a relaxed sitting position. The back is bow-shaped, the legs curved. Normally the seat and back are upholstered, and there are little upholstered pads covering the armrests. Smooth transitions are found between seat frame, legs, and back conceal all the joints, which are stable, constructed on craftsmanlike methods in spite of the absence of stretchers between the legs.
French Rococo chairs and imitations thereof have wood of rather thick dimensions; but every member is deeply molded, all extraneous wood has been cut away, and finer items would be further embellished with very delicate and decorative carvings. The wood may be varnished, stained, painted, or gilded. Silk damask or tapestry should be used for all the upholstery on the seat, back, and armrests; canework is occasionally used instead of upholstery.
English chairs in the 18th century were more variable in form than the French. The French taste for stylistic uniformity, which disseminated from the royal circles in Paris and Versailles over most of France and was popularised in large parts of the Continent, had no parallel in England. Prior to 1740, the most commonly used wood was walnut; thereafter, and for the rest of the century, it was mahogany. Walnut, though beautiful in hue, was soft and therefore less suited to wood carving than to rounded, curving forms. Outer surfaces, such as the back and seat frame, were usually veneered. During the walnut period, highly overstuffed armchairs, covered with leather or embroidered material, were also developed. The best upholstery of this period is precisely and firmly modelled and accentuated by braiding or tacks. When imports of mahogany became common, no specifically new chair designs appeared, but the character of the woodwork changed. Mahogany, having a firmer, closer grain, could be cut thinner, which meant that individual parts of the chair could be more slender in shape. Mahogany also lent itself better to carving than walnut. Carving was concentrated more on the arms and back than on the legs, which as a rule were straight and smooth with chamfered (bevelled) edges and molding. There was a wealth of variety in chairback designs, featuring elegant, pierced, vase-shaped splats or two upright posts connected by horizontal slats (ladderback).
Alongside the French Rococo chair and the best English chairs in walnut and mahogany, the stick-back chair was relatively unaffected by the stylistic changes of the day. Originally a medieval form, known, for example, from paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and still found in mid-20th century in the churches and inns of southern Europe, the stick-back chair (in all of its variations) consists basically of a solid, saddle-shaped seat into which the legs, back staves, and possibly the armrests are directly mortised. This typically peasant form underwent a renewal and a process of refinement in England and America during the 18th century. Under the name Windsor chair (a term that seems to have been used for the first time in 1731) or Philadelphia chair, it became popular and was widely distributed throughout the world.
Late 18th to 20th century
Within the Neoclassical period, no basic changes took place in chair forms, but legs became straight and dimensions lighter. Backs in the shape of classical vases replaced the fanciful outlines of the Rococo period. Around 1800, freely executed imitations of Greek and Roman chairs of the klismos type, with curved legs and backrest, appeared. French chairs of the Empire period, executed in dark mahogany and embellished with ornate bronze mounts, created a ponderous effect.
In cheaper styles of inferior workmanship, bourgeois chairs of the 19th century carried on the traditions of the 17th and 18th centuries. The only real innovations were the bentwood (wood that has been bent and shaped) chairs in beech that became popular all over the world and were still made in the 20th century. Around 1900 the continental Art Nouveau and Jugendstil styles (French and German styles characterized by organic foliate forms, sinuous lines, and non-geometric forms), and the Arts and Crafts movement in England (established by the English poet and decorator William Morris to reintroduce idealized standards of medieval craftsmanship), gave rise to original chair designs by Eugène Gaillard in France, Henry van de Velde in Belgium, Josef Hoffman in Austria, Antonio Gaudí in Spain, and Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Scotland. These new furniture styles did not exercise wide, let alone decisive, influence. The Art Nouveau chairs designed by the French architect Hector Guimard, for example, are collector’s pieces, but his name is known to a broader public only because of his fanciful entrances to the Paris Métro.
Modern
After World War I, the Bauhaus school in Germany became a creative centre for revolutionary thinking, resulting, for example, in tubular steel chairs designed by the architects Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and others. During World War II, the aircraft industry accelerated the development of laminated wood and molded plastic furniture. The dominant chair forms of this period go back to designs by Alvar Aalto, Bruno Mathsson, and Charles and Ray Eames. Rapid technical developments, in conjunction with an ever-increasing interest in human-factors engineering, or ergonomics, indicate that completely new chair forms will probably be evolved in the future.
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