From all the furniture items, the chair might be paramount. While the majority of other objects (except the bed) are designed to support objects, the chair supports a human form. The term chair was regarded here in the larger sense, from stool to throne to derivative chairs like a bench or sofa, which may be looked upon as extended or connected chairs, and whose character (i.e., whether they are intended for sitting or reclining) is not overtly defined.
The social history of the chair is as intriguing as its history as a creative art. The chair is not simply a physical support and an aesthetic craft; it was also a signifier of social place. Within the old royal courts there were clear signifiers between being led to a chair with arms, on a chair with a back but without arms, and having to make do with a stool. From the recent century, a director’s or manager’s chair has risen an indicator of superior status, as well as in democratic government meeting the speaker sits on a raised floor.
As a furniture creation, the chair is utilised for a range of different forms. There are chairs designed to suit man’s age and physical abilities (the high chair, the wheelchair) and to connotate his status in society (the executive chair, the throne). Since past days there were chairs used for birthing (birth chairs); from the 20th century, there have been chairs for ending life (the electric chair). We make 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.
Our modern lifestyle has demanded special chairs for use in automobiles and aircraft. All these chair kinds has evolved to match to changing human needs. Because of its particular relationship with man, the chair exists to its full advantage only when in use. While it does not make any difference to one’s appreciation of a cupboard or a chest of drawers if there are items inside or not, a chair is seen best and fairly evaluated by a person sitting on it, for chair and sitter suit each other. Thus the individual areas of a chair have been named corresponding to the elements of a human parts: arms, legs, feet, back, and seat.
Because the simple function of a chair is to support your body, its credit is valued primarily on how fully it does measure up to this practical role. Within the build of a chair, the maker is limited under some static law and principal measurements. Inside these limitations, however, the chair designer has awesome freedom.
The history of the chair lasted an epoch of several thousand years. There existed civilizations that had made distinctive chair types, seen of the topmost craft in the industries of skill and art. From these cultures, particular note must 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 upshot of skilled make, are now found from tomb discoveries. One of these two is a four-legged chair with a back, the other a folding stool. The classical Egyptian chair had four legs formed similar to those of a designated animal, a curved seat, with a sloping back supported over vertical stretchers. From this design a strong triangular structure was obtained. There seemed to be no particular differentiation from the structure of Egyptian thrones and chairs for ordinary people. The only variation lied in the intricacy of ornamentation, in the choice of pricier inlays. The Egyptian folding stool most probably was made to be an easily packed seat for soldiers. As a camp stool this chair continued til much later points in time. But the stool also then was created as the use of a ceremonial seat, its technical function as a folding stool neglected or forgotten. This can already be found, from as early as 1366–57 BC in two stools, crafted in ebony with ivory inlay work and gold mounts, from the tomb of Tutankhamen. They were constructed in the shape of folding stools but cannot be folded as the seats are worked with wood. The easy make of the folding stool, consisting of two frames that cycle on metal bolts and bear a seat of leather or fabric fastened between them, was seen again at some time later from the Bronze Age folding chairs of Scandinavia and northern Germany. The most recognisable of those is the folding stool, crafted out of ashwood, which can now be found at Guldhøj (National Museum in Copenhagen).
Greece and Rome
The unique Greek chair, the klismos, is seen not from any ancient specimen still extant but in a trove of pictorial material. The iconic kind is the klismos placed on the Hegeso Stele at the Dipylon burial ground by Athens (c. 410 BC). This klismos is a chair with a backward-sloping, curved backboard and four curving legs, but only two of those were seen. These unusual legs were likely to be manufactured in bent wood and were in that case put under extreme pressure from the weight of the sitter. The joints holding the legs to the frame of the seat would have been therefore very stable and were clearly denoted.
The Romans embued the Greek designs; designs of models of seated Romans are examples of a heavier and are a slightly crudely built klismos. Both kinds, light and heavy, were seen again in the Classicist era. The klismos influence can be seen in French Empire chairs, in English Regency, and in some special types of profound uniqueness around Denmark and Sweden from 1800.
China
The progression of the chair in China cannot be traced as long as in Egypt and Greece. From the time of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) an undamaged collection of sketches and works of art has been kept, with images of the interior and outer parts of Chinese houses and their furniture. Preserved also from the 16th century are some chairs crafted of wood or lacquered wood, that bear an amazing similarity to representations of ancient chairs.
As was the case in Egypt, two chair designs persisted in China: a chair having four legs and a folding stool. The four-legged chair is constructed both with or without arms however always with its square seat and straight stiles (standing side supports) to hold up the back. In one type, though, the stiles are lightly curved on top of the arms to fit the form of the S-shaped back splat (the basic upright of the back). Together, all three sections had been mortised into the yoke-like top rail. Despite that the design of this back splat exercised an inspiration for English chairs of the Queen Anne period, wooden items that would only to a restricted extent stabilise corner joints (and are loose to top that off) indicate a signature exclusive to Chinese chairs. The four legs sit through the seat frame, which ends over the rounded staves. All members are round in section or is given rounded edges—references perchance to the bamboo tradition. The seat is not pleasant and may have had a plaited seat. These chairs demanded of the sitter to hold themselves stiff and upright; if too much pressure is pushed on the back, the chair has a habit of collapsing. In patriarchal Chinese houses of this period armchairs presumably were reserved only for the senior individuals, for they were given great respect.
The Chinese folding stool is presumed to have come to China from the West. It is not dissimilar that much from the Egyptian and Scandinavian folding stools, but it possesses a dissimilarity in that the top rail is delicately joined to the two legs of the stool by means of a curved member, which is more often than not provided with metal mounts. From a Western viewpoint the overall effect of both of these furniture forms is stylized. The construction and decorative issues are combined in a manner that is at the same time naïve and refined. The patched up appearance is a result of the manner that the individual members do not look to have been adjoined by use of either glue or screws, but have been mortised on one another and locked into place in the manner of a Chinese puzzle.
Spain: 17th century
The Golden Age of Spain of the 17th century also left its signature on the chair. Paintings show a design of chair with a relatively crude wooden frame; a back and seat, nailed on, possessing two layers of leather, with horsehair stuffing between the layers, stitched to produce a pattern of tiny pads. The front board and a corresponding board from the back could be folded after unscrewing some tiny iron hooks. Thus the chair was a readily portable piece of furniture for traveling which, at the same period, possessed the status of a four-legged, high-backed armchair.
The Netherlands: 17th century
A low, square, upholstered type of chair is evidenced in engravings of the interiors of affluent Dutch homes by Abraham Bosse, a French artist, as well as in paintings by the Dutch artists Johannes Vermeer and Gerard Terborch. Although this type of chair is also seen in countries in which Dutch styles of interior decoration and Dutch furniture won critical acclaim, it is not certain that the innovation actually was instigated in The Netherlands. Generally, the legs of the chair were smooth, round in section, and of slim dimensions; they are in some cases baluster-shaped (vase-shaped) or twisted. It is unquestionably a bourgeois piece of furniture and was produced in impressive amounts, as surmisable from one of Abraham Bosse’s engravings, in which a whole row of these chairs lined up by a wall. The form asserts itself by virtue of its shapely proportions and expensive upholstery in gilt leather or fabric framed 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—spread over most of Europe and has been imitated or copied in the mid-20th century. The model owes this popularity to a combination of relaxation and charm. The seat adheres to the human body and permits a relaxed sitting position. The back is bow-shaped, the legs curved. Normally the seat and back are upholstered, and there are tiny 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 principles in spite of the absence of stretchers between the legs.
French Rococo chairs and imitations of them use wood of quite thick density; but each member is deeply molded, all extraneous wood has been taken away, and more expensive chairs would be further embellished with highly delicate and decorative engravings. The wood might be varnished, stained, painted, or gilded. Silk damask or tapestry can be used for any upholstery on the seat, back, and armrests; crosshatched cane is sometimes used rather than upholstery.
English chairs in the 18th century were more variable in style than the French. The French taste for stylistic uniformity, which disseminated from the royal circles in Paris and Versailles throughout most of France and became the favourite in several 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
During 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 products 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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