From all the furniture objects, the chair may be of most importance. While most of the other objects (save the bed) are devised to support objects, the chair supports the human form. The term chair should be said here in the most general sense, from stool to throne to further chairs such as the bench or sofa, which can be looked upon as extended or connected chairs, and whose character (i.e., whether they are intended for sitting or reclining) is not clearly distinguished.
The social history of the chair is as intriguing as its history as an art and craft. The chair is not just a physical support and/or an aesthetic piece of art; it can also be semiotic of social rank. In the old royal courts there were plain signifiers between having a chair with arms, on a chair with a back but without arms, and having to make do with a stool. From the last century, the director’s and/or manager’s chair has been regarded as a signifier of superior dignity, like in democratic government debate the speaker sits on a higher floor.
As a furniture construction, the chair can be utilised for a number of different purposes. There are chairs structured to suit man’s age and physical form (the high chair, the wheelchair) and for his standing in society (the executive chair, the throne). From past times there were chairs for birthing (birth chairs); since the 20th century, there have been chairs to die in (the electric chair). There are chairs with one, two, three, and four legs, chairs with or without arms, and chairs with or without backs. We can have chairs that can be folded, chairs on wheels, and chairs on runners.
Our modern lifestyle has developed particular chairs for use in automobiles and aircraft. All of these chair kinds has been adapted to match to evolving human desires. For its particular link with man, the chair appears to its full purpose only when being utilised. Whereas it does not make any difference to one’s appreciation of a cupboard or a bureau if there is anything inside or not, a chair is really understood and judged by a person sitting on it, because chair and sitter need one another. Thus the various parts of a chair were labeled as the areas of our human body: arms, legs, feet, back, and seat.
Because the first function of your chair is to support our human body, its credit is valued basically by how well it does fulfill this practical role. Within the creation of the chair, the builder is bound for certain static law and principal measurements. Under these limits, however, the chair maker has extensive freedom.
The history of the chair extended over an era of several thousand years. There existed civilizations that have created significant chair types, as expressive of the topmost craft in the areas of handling and art. Out of those peoples, particular note should 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 lifetimes of Louis XV and Louis XVI.
Egypt
Two ancient Egyptian chair forms, both the items of skilled design, are today found from discoveries made in tombs. The first one of the two is a four-legged chair with a back, the other a folding stool. The typical Egyptian chair would have four legs formed not unlike those of a designated animal, a curved seat, with a sloping back supported above vertical stretchers. In this way a solid triangular construction was made. There appears to be no noteworthy differentiation between the design of Egyptian thrones and chairs for typical peasantry. The main difference lies in the brand of ornamentation, in the evidence of more costly inlays. The Egyptian folding stool most probably was developed to be an easily carried seat for army officers. As a camp stool that chair existed for much later points. But the stool also was designed for the character of a ceremonial seat, its original task as a folding stool ignored or forgotten. This can from evidence be found, from as early as 1366–57 BC in two stools, crafted in ebony with ivory inlay ornamentation and gold mounts, from the tomb of Tutankhamen. They are in the construction of folding stools but aren’t able to be folded because the seats were created of wood. The easy construction of the folding stool, consisting of two frames that rotate on metal bolts and support a seat of leather or fabric held between them, also appeared somewhat later from the Bronze Age folding chairs of Scandinavia and northern Germany. The better known of these is the folding stool, made out of ashwood, which is now found at Guldhøj (National Museum in Copenhagen).
Greece and Rome
The archetypal Greek chair, the klismos, is found not in any ancient specimen still extant but found in a wealth of pictorial items. The most well known is the klismos displayed on the Hegeso Stele at the Dipylon burial ground by Athens (c. 410 BC). This is a chair with a backward-sloping, curved backboard and four curving legs, but only two of those legs could be shown. These odd legs were considered to have been created with bent wood and were therefore had to bear great pressure under the weight of the sitter. The joints holding the legs to the frame of the seat were therefore extremely durable and were overtly pointed out.
The Romans embued the Greek style; some models of seated Romans offer evidence of a heavier and apparently kind of less intricately constructed klismos. Both kinds, light and heavy, were seen again as part of the Classicist period. The klismos design is known in French Empire chairs, in English Regency, and in special types of considerable uniqueness within Denmark and Sweden circa 1800.
China
The history of the chair in China is not able to be charted as far as chairs in Egypt and Greece. Since the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) a full folio of images and artworks has been preserved, showing the interior and outside of Chinese houses and the kinds of furniture. Also kept from the 16th century are a trove of chairs constructed of wood or lacquered wood, that display an interesting resemblance to styles of past chairs.
Same as in Egypt, there were two iconic chair forms in China: a chair having four legs and a folding stool. This four-legged chair was found both with and without arms though always with the square seat and straight stiles (standing side supports) to hold up the back. In one kind, it has been seen, the stiles could be delicately curved above the arms for the purpose of conform correctly to the shape of the S-shaped back splat (the centre upright of its back). The three limbs are mortised in the yoke-like top rail. Although the style of this back splat exercised an influence on English chairs within the Queen Anne period, wooden sections that could only to a restricted limit support corner joints (and furthermore are loose additionally) represent a feature exclusive to Chinese chairs. The four legs sit through the seat frame, which ends around the rounded staves. All the members are round in section or has rounded edges—acknowledging perhaps to the bamboo tradition. The seat is not comfortable and had on occasion a plaited seat. These chairs required the sitter to stay stiff and upright; when too much weight is forced on the back, the chair has a tendency to topple over. In patriarchal Chinese homes of this era armchairs probably were kept only for the senior individuals, for they were held in great respect.
The Chinese folding stool is thought to have taken to China from the West. It does not vary very much from the Egyptian and Scandinavian folding stools, but it has a dissimilarity in that the top rail is delicately joined to the two legs of the stool with a curved member, which is generally provided with metal mounts. From a Western point of view the ultimate effect of both furniture forms is stylized. The construction and decoration elements are combined in a style that is at the same time naïve and refined. The pieced-together appearance is an upshot of the way that the individual members do not seem to have been held together by use of either glue or screws, but were mortised into one another and fixed in position 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 project a type of chair with a relatively brusque wooden frame; a back and seat, nailed on, possessing two layers of leather, with horsehair stuffing in the layers, stitched to bring up a pattern of little pads. The front board and a related board from the back could be folded after unscrewing some tiny iron hooks. In this way the chair was a portable piece of furniture for traveling which, at the same period, had the dignity of a four-legged, high-backed armchair.
The Netherlands: 17th century
A low, square, upholstered style of chair is evidenced in engravings of interiors of affluent Dutch homes by Abraham Bosse, a French artist, and in paintings by the Dutch artists Johannes Vermeer and Gerard Terborch. Although this kind of chair may also be made in countries where Dutch styles of interior decoration and Dutch furniture won critical acclaim, it is not certain that the innovation actually started in The Netherlands. Generally, the legs of the chair are smooth, round in section, and of slender dimensions; they are in some cases baluster-shaped (vase-shaped) or twisted. It is clearly a bourgeois piece of furniture and was made in vast numbers, as evidenced from one of Abraham Bosse’s engravings, in which there is a whole row of such chairs lined up along a wall. The design asserts itself by virtue of its harmonious 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 of styles—that is to say, as developed in Paris around 1750—spread over most of Europe and has been imitated or copied during the mid-20th century. The model owes the popularity to a combination of leisure and delicacy. The seat adheres to the human body and grants a relaxed sitting position. The back is bow-shaped, the legs curved. Usually the seat and back are upholstered, and there are tiny upholstered pads over the armrests. Smooth transitions are found between seat frame, legs, and back conceal all the joints, which are strongly constructed on craftsmanlike methodology despite the absence of stretchers between the legs.
French Rococo chairs and imitations of those are constructed from wood of rather thick density; but all the members are deeply molded, all extraneous wood has been cut away, and more upmarket examples would be further embellished with very delicate and decorative engravings. The wood may be varnished, stained, painted, or gilded. Silk damask or tapestry is used for the upholstery on the seat, back, and armrests; cane is occasionally used instead of upholstery.
English chairs of the 18th century were more open in form than the French. The French touch for stylistic uniformity, which came from the most distinguished circles in Paris and Versailles throughout 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 reknowned and was widely distributed throughout the world.
Late 18th to 20th century
In 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 brands 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, suggest that completely new chair forms will probably be evolved in the future.
For a great deal on office storage in Melbourne contact Fast Office Furniture today and check our specials.
Tangalooma Island Resort is a paradise found in Tangalooma, Queensland in Australia. It was originally a whaling station and was changed into an island getaway because of its precious flora and fauna and its stunning views. Couples or families trying to find a choice vacation destination can expect to definitely love a Tangalooma Island Resort holiday.
Hawaii is home to many beautiful vacation destinations and holiday bookings to these tropical islands can be made by Travel Online. This iconic tourist destination is well-known for its pristine beaches, moderate climate, world-standard shopping facilities, and distinctive Polynesian culture.