The History of the Chair
Out of all furniture needs, the chair could be paramount. While many other objects (save the bed) are devised to support objects, the chair supports a human form. The term chair is meant to be looked upon here in the common sense, from stool to throne to derivative pieces such as a bench or sofa, which should be regarded as extended or connected chairs, and whose character (i.e., whether they are intended for sitting or reclining) is not clearly distinuishable.
The social history of the chair is as curious as its history as an art and craft. The chair is not only a physical support and/or an aesthetic item; it is historically a symbol of social placement. Within the historical royal courts there were clear signifiers between having a chair with arms, or a chair with a back but no arms, or worse having to use a stool. Since the past century, the director’s and/or manager’s chair has become a symbol of superior status, as well as in democratic governments the speaker sits on a higher platform.
As a furniture creation, the chair can be employed for a number of different makes. There are chairs designed to attend to man’s age and physical form (the high chair, the wheelchair) and to denote his position in society (the executive chair, the throne). In the past there were chairs to be born in (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 make chairs that can be folded, chairs on wheels, and chairs on runners.
Contemporary lifestyle has demanded new chairs for use in automobiles and aircraft. Each of these chair forms has been perfected to conform to growing human desires. For its unique link with man, the chair exists to its full importance only when being utilised. While it isn’t relevant to one’s appreciation of a cupboard or a dresser drawers whether there might be items inside or not, a chair is really seen best and clearly evaluated by a person utilising it, for chair and sitter need each other. Thus the different limbs of the chair have been given labels likened to the areas of our human body: arms, legs, feet, back, and seat.
Because the primary purpose of a chair is to support our human body, its credit is valued basically on how well it measures up to this practical purpose. Within the creation of the chair, the maker is bound under some static legislation and principal measurements. Under these restrictions, however, the chair maker has extensive freedom.
The history of the chair covers dates of several thousand years. There are civilizations that made individual chair forms, expressive of the highest work in the arenas of handling and art. From such societies, a 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 reigns of Louis XV and Louis XVI.
Egypt
Two ancient Egyptian chair forms, both the construct of expert design, were 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 iconic Egyptian chair has four legs crafted similar to those of some animal, a curved seat, and with a sloping back supported by vertical stretchers. From this design a strong triangular structure was obtained. There was from our view no notable differentiation from the design of Egyptian thrones and chairs for common populace. The general variation was in the intricacy of its ornamentation, in the particulars of expensive inlays. The Egyptian folding stool probably was developed for an easily carried seat for soldiers. As a camp stool that kind persisted until much later periods. But the stool then played the purpose of a ceremonial seat, its original function as a folding stool simply forgotten. This can today be seen, from as early as 1366–57 BC in two stools, created in ebony with ivory inlay work and gold mounts, from the tomb of Tutankhamen. They are in the structure of folding stools but can’t be folded because the seats are formed out of wood. The simplistic construction of the folding stool, composed of two frames that turn on metal bolts and support a seat of leather or fabric held between them, reappears some time later in the Bronze Age folding chairs of Scandinavia and northern Germany. The best known of this kind is the folding stool, crafted from ashwood, seen at Guldhøj (National Museum in Copenhagen).
Greece and Rome
The unique Greek chair, the klismos, is seen not from any ancient specimen still in form but found in a trove of pictorial items. The most well known is the klismos depicted on the Hegeso Stele at the Dipylon burial location in outer Athens (c. 410 BC). It is a chair with a backward-sloping, curved backboard and four curving legs, only two of which would be shown. These unique legs were understood to be created from bent wood and were as such had extreme pressure under the weight of the sitter. The joints securing the legs to the frame of the seat would have been therefore very durable and were visibly pointed out.
The Romans borrowed from the Greek chair; evidence of casts of seated Romans display evidence of a thicker and in appearance kind of more crudely crafted klismos. Both styles, light and heavy, were popularised during the Classicist epoch. The klismos design can be evidenced in French Empire furniture, in English Regency, and in some special forms of notable uniqueness in Denmark and Sweden circa 1800.
China
The past of the chair in China is not able to be tracked as far back as in Egypt and Greece. Since the time of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) a full serial of sketches and artworks had been preserved, displaying the interior and outer parts of Chinese buildings and the designs of furniture. Also preserved from the 16th century are some chairs constructed of wood or lacquered wood, that bear an intriguing similarity to pictures of past chairs.
As were the designs in Egypt, two major chair forms existed in China: a chair with four legs and a folding stool. That chair was seen both with or without arms though never without the square seat and straight stiles (upright side supports) to hold up the back. In one design, it has been seen, the stiles were lightly curved by the arms in order to conform to the structure of the S-shaped back splat (the centre upright of its back). All three parts had been mortised in the yoke-like top rail. Despite that the design of the back splat then had a foundation for English chairs of the Queen Anne period, wooden pieces that could only to a limited limit support corner joints (and were loose in the result) indicate a signature exclusive to Chinese chairs. The four legs are set through the seat frame, which closes upon the rounded staves. Members are round in section or has rounded edges—acknowledging perhaps to the bamboo tradition. The seat is not comfortable and may have had a plaited texture. These chairs required the sitter to stay stiff and upright; if too much weight is pushed on the back, the chair has a way of falling over. In patriarchal Chinese households of this period armchairs presumably were kept for the senior members of the family, for they were greatly esteemed.
The Chinese folding stool is presumed to have come to China from the West. It is akin much from the Egyptian or Scandinavian folding stools, but it has a dissimilarity in that the top rail is elegantly fixed to the two legs of the stool in a curved member, which is usually provided with metal mounts. From a Western viewpoint the resulting effect of these two furniture styles is stylized. The constructive and decorative elements are combined in a manner that is at the same time naïve and refined. The piecemeal appearance is a result of the manner that the individual members do not appear to have been joined together by either glue or screws, but are mortised with one another and fixed in its place in the manner of a Chinese puzzle.
Spain: 17th century
The Golden Age of Spain of the 17th century also put its mark on the chair. Paintings show 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, stitched to produce a pattern of tiny pads. The front board and a similar board from the back could be folded after loosening some small iron hooks. Thus the chair was a portable piece of furniture for traveling which, at the same period, had the status of a four-legged, high-backed armchair.
The Netherlands: 17th century
A low, square, upholstered style of chair can be found in engravings of interiors of rich Dutch homes by Abraham Bosse, a French artist, and also in paintings by the Dutch artists Johannes Vermeer and Gerard Terborch. Although this type of chair might also be seen in countries in which Dutch styles of interior decoration and Dutch furniture won favour, it is not decided that the design actually was instigated in The Netherlands. Usually, the legs of the chair will be smooth, round in section, and of slim shape; they are in some cases baluster-shaped (vase-shaped) or twisted. It is unquestionably a bourgeois piece of furniture and was made in impressive quantities, as indicated from one of Abraham Bosse’s engravings, in which an entire row of those chairs lined up along a wall. The style asserts itself with its shapely proportions and fine upholstery in gilt leather or fabric bordered with fringes.
France and England: 17th and 18th centuries
The French Rococo chair in its most mature form—that was, as developed in Paris around 1750—spread over most of Europe and was imitated or copied during the mid-20th century. The chair owes this popularity to a combination of leisure and charm. The seat suits to the human body and allows a relaxed seated position. The back is bow-shaped, the legs curved. Typically the seat and back are upholstered, and there are tiny upholstered pads on the armrests. Smooth transitions are made between seat frame, legs, and back cover all the joints, which are strongly constructed on craftsmanlike methodology even with the absence of stretchers between the legs.
French Rococo chairs and imitations thereof employ wood of relatively thick density; but all members are deeply molded, all superfluous wood has been taken away, and finer chairs would be further embellished with special delicate and decorative carvings. The wood could be varnished, stained, painted, or gilded. Silk damask or tapestry is generally used for all the upholstery on the seat, back, and armrests; crosshatched cane is in some cases used rather than upholstery.
English chairs in the 18th century were more varied in design than the French. The French manner for stylistic uniformity, which lead from the royal circles in Paris and Versailles through most of France and was popular 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 well-known 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 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, suggest that completely new chair forms will probably be evolved in the future.
For a great deal on office chairs in Melbourne contact Fast Office Furniture today and check our specials.
Sphere: Related ContentComments
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!