History of the chair: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Line 1:

{{pp|small=yes}}

{{Short description|none}}

{{Multiple issues|

{{more citations needed|date=April 2019}}

Line 6:

{{Lead rewrite|date=May 2024|reason=It does not adequetely summarize the content of the article.}}

}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=JanuarySeptember 20162024}}

[[Chair]]s are known to have existed since [[Ancient Egypt]] and have been widespread in the Western world from the [[Ancient Greece|Greeks]] and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]] onwards. They were in common use in [[Imperial China|China]] from the twelfth century, and were used by the [[Aztecs]].

Line 15:

[[File:Hetepheres chair.jpg|250px|thumb|The chair of [[Hetepheres I]], the mother of [[Khufu]]]]

Several depictions of chairs of various types have survived, from stools, benches, chairs, and thrones, both in the form of art and from extant examples preserved thanks to the dry environment of the tombs.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.furniturestyles.net/ancient/egyptian/ | title=Ancient Egyptian Furniture in Egypt |website=furniturestyles.net}}</ref>{{bsn|date=September 2024|reason=This is the half dead website of a furniture store}} These ancient chairs were built to stand much lower than modern examples, sometimes only 10 inches (25&nbsp;cm) at the seat.

Archeologists have found evidence of their use as early as the [[Second Dynasty of Egypt|2nd Dynasty of Egypt]] of the [[Early Dynastic Period (Egypt)|Early Dynastic Period]]. An example of a 2nd Dynasty depiction of a chair, or perhaps more aptly a throne, is shown in the statuette of [[Nynetjer|Pharaoh Nynetjer]] (c.2785–2742 BC) in the [[Rijksmuseum van Oudheden]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/menesje/15164706669/in/photostream/ | title=Statuette of Pharaoh Ninetjer (C.2785–2742 BC). RMO (Rijksmuseum van Oudheden), Leiden, Netherlands | date=25 September 2014 }}</ref>{{primary inline|date=September 2024}}

==Ancient Mesopotamian chairs==

Line 30:

==Mexican chairs==

One type of ancient Mexican chair called the [[icpalli]] is mentioned by [[Jacques Soustelle]].<ref>{{cite book |titlelast1=TheSoustelle |first1=Jacques |title=Daily Life of the Aztecs |date=2002 |publisher=Courier Corporation |isbn=978-0-486-42485-9 |page=122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WMrNE7uq-tMC&pg=PA122 |language=en}}</ref> The icpalli can be seen in Diego Rivera's mural of the [[Aztec]] market of [[Tlatelolco (altepetl)|Tlatelolco]], located in the Mexican [[National Palace (Mexico)|National Palace]]. The icpalli is also featured in the [[Codex Telleriano-Remensis]]; dignitaries and emperors are depicted sitting in them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mexicolore.co.uk/aztecs/artefacts/aztec-high-chair |title=Aztec high-chair? |publisher=Mexicolore.co.uk |access-date=9 April |accessdate=2019-04-09}}</ref>

==Medieval chairs==

[[File:Walraversijde09.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Seigneurial chairs at a table with tin cutlery, pottery, medieval glass and earthenware in majolica, c. 1465]]

The chair of [[Maximian]] in the cathedral of [[Ravenna]] is believed to date from the middle of the 6th century. It is of marble, round, with a high back, and is carved in high relief with figures of saints and scenes from the Gospels—the Annunciation, the Adoration of the [[Magi]], the flight into Egypt and the baptism of Christ. The smaller spaces are filled with carvings of animals, birds, flowers and foliated ornament.{{sfn|Penderel-Brodhurst|1911|p=801}} [[The Chair of St. Augustine]], dating from at least the early thirteenth century<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,872540,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930083344/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,872540,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=30 September 2007 |title=The 100th Canterbury |publisher=TIME |date=7 July 1961-07-07 |accessdateaccess-date=9 April 2019-04-09}}</ref> is one of the oldest [[cathedra]]e is not in use.

Another very ancient seat is the so-called "[[Chair of Dagobert]]" in the ''[[Cabinet des médailles]]'' of the [[Bibliothèque nationale de France]]. It is of cast bronze, sharpened with the chisel and partially gilt; it is of the curule or faldstool type and supported upon legs terminating in the heads and feet of animals. The seat, which was probably of leather, has disappeared. Its attribution depends entirely upon the statement of Suger, abbot of St Denis in the 12th century, who added a back and arms. Its age has been much discussed, but Viollet-le-Duc dated it to early [[Merovingian]] times, and it may in any case be taken as the oldest faldstool in existence.{{sfn|Penderel-Brodhurst|1911|p=801}}

Line 47:

[[File:Gu Hongzhong's Night Revels, Detail 6.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A [[Gentry (China)|Chinese gentleman]] sitting in a chair while listening to music and watching a dancer, close-up detail in a 12th-century [[Song dynasty]] remake of the 10th-century original ''[[Gu Hongzhong|Night Revels of Han Xizai]]''.]]

[[File:Fauteuil racine Chine Quianlong musee arts asiatiques Nice.jpg|thumbnail|250px|Chinese armchair made from roots. [[Qing dynasty]], [[Qianlong Emperor|Qianlong]] reign, 18th century]]

Before the [[Tang dynasty]] (618–907 AD), the predominant sitting positions in the [[Han Chinese]] culture, as well as several of its neighbors, were the [[seiza]] and [[lotus position]] on the floor or [[sitting mat]]s. The earliest images of chairs in China are from sixth-century Buddhist murals and stele, but the practice of sitting in chairs at that time was rare. It was not until the twelfth century that chairs became widespread in China. Scholars disagree on the reasons for the adoption of the chair. The most common theories are that the chair was an outgrowth of indigenous Chinese furniture, that it evolved from a camp stool imported from Central Asia, that it was introduced to China by Nestorian missionaries in the seventh century, and that the chair came to China from India as a form of Buddhist monastic furniture.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kieschnick, |first1=John. ''|title=The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture'', |date=2003 |publisher=Princeton University Press, 2003,|isbn=978-0-691-09676-6 pp|url=https://books.222–248google.co.uk/books/about?id=xug9DwAAQBAJ |pages=222—248}}</ref> In China today, both elevated living and mat level forms are still in use.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Brief History of Chinese Furniture |url=https://www.orientalfurnishings.com/a-brief-history-of-chinese-furniture/ |access-date=1 February 2021-02-01 |website=www.orientalfurnishings.com}}</ref>

==Renaissance chairs==

In Europe, it was owing in great measure to the [[Renaissance]] that the chair ceased to be a mark of high office, and became the customary companion of whoever could afford to buy it. Once the idea of privilege faded the chair speedily came into general use. We find almost at once began to reflect the fashions of the hour. No piece of furniture has ever been so close an index to sumptuary changes. It has varied in size, shape and sturdiness with the fashion not only of women's dress but of men's also. Thus the chair which was not, even with its arms purposely suppressed, too ample during the several reigns of some form or other of hoops and farthingale, became monstrous when these protuberances disappeared. Again, the costly laced coats of the dandy of the 18th and early 19th centuries were so threatened by the ordinary form of seat that a "conversation chair" was devised, which enabled the buck and the ruffler to sit with his face to the back, his valuable tails hanging unimpeded over the front{{Non sequitur|date=June 2022}}. The early chair almost invariably had arms, and it was not until towards the close of the 16th century that the smaller form grew common.{{sfn|Penderel-Brodhurst|1911|p=802}}

The majority of the chairs of all countries until the middle of the 17th century were of timber (the commonest survival is [[oak]])<ref>{{cite book |last1=Knell, |first1=David (2000), ''|title=English Country Furniture: The Vernacular Tradition 1500–1900'', ACC,1500-1900 44.|date=2000 {{ISBN|publisher=Antique Collectors' Club |isbn=1-85149-302-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mv_qAAAAMAAJ |page=44}}.</ref> without upholstery, and when it became customary to cushion them, [[leather]] was sometimes employed; subsequently [[velvet]] and [[silk]] were extensively used, and at a later period cheaper and often more durable materials.{{sfn|Penderel-Brodhurst|1911|p=802}} <!-- Unsourced image removed: [[File:ABosseHearing.jpg|thumb|left|Engraving by Abraham Bosse, Paris ''ca'' 1630]] --> In Abraham Bosse's engraving (''illustration, left''), a stylish Parisian musical party of about 1630 have pulled their low chairs (called "[[backstool]]s" in contemporary England) away from the tapestry-hung walls where they were normally lined up. The padded back panels were covered with needlework panels to suit the tapestries, or in other settings with leather, plain or tooled. Plain cloth across the back hid the wooden framing. Stools with column legs complement the set, but aren't ''en suite''. In seventeenth century [[France]] the [[bergère]] chair became fashionable among the nobility and was often made of [[walnut]].

Leather was not infrequently used even for the costly and elaborate chairs of the faldstool form—occasionally sheathed in thin plates of silver—which [[Venice]] sent all over Europe. To this day, indeed, leather is one of the most frequently employed materials for chair covering. The outstanding characteristic of most chairs until the middle of the 17th century was massiveness and solidity. Being usually made of oak, they were of considerable weight, and it was not until the introduction of the handsome [[Louis XIII of France|Louis XIII]] chairs with cane backs and seats that either weight or solidity was reduced.{{sfn|Penderel-Brodhurst|1911|p=802}}

Line 61:

==Sub-Saharan African chairs==

While [[Ibn Battuta]] was visiting [[Mali]] in 1352, he mentioned the king's interpreter sitting on a chair and beating on an instrument made of reeds.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hamdun |first1=Said |last2=King |first2=Nöel |title=Ibn Battuta in Black Africa |date=1994 |location=Princeton |publisher=Markus Wiener |url=https://archive.org/details/ibnbattutainblac0000ibnb/page/52/mode/2up |isbn=1-55876-087-3 |page=52}}</ref> The Portuguese explorer [[Vasco da Gama]] (the first European to visit [[Malindi]]) discussed being greeted by a king seated on a bronze chair and wearing an ornate robe trimmed in green satin.<ref>{{cite book |title=The East Africa Protectorate |author=Sir Charles Eliot |date=1905 |page=13 |url=https://ia600209.us.archive.org/16/items/eastafricaprotec00eliouoft/eastafricaprotec00eliouoft.pdf |location=London |publisher=Edward Arnold}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama, 1497—1499 |author=E. G. RAVENSTEIN, F.R.G.S. |location=New York |publisher=Burt Franklin |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46440/46440-h/46440-h.htm#Page_42 |page=42}}</ref>

While [[Ibn Battuta]] was visiting [[Mali]] in 1352, he mentioned the king's interpreter sitting on a chair and beating on an instrument made of reeds.<ref>Ibn Battuta in Black Africa

https://archive.org/details/ibnbattutainblac0000ibnb/page/52/mode/2up</ref> The Portuguese explorer [[Vasco da Gama]] (the first European to visit [[Malindi]]) discussed being greeted by a king seated on a bronze chair and wearing an ornate robe trimmed in green satin.<ref>The East Africa Protectorate by Sir Charles Eliot page 13

https://ia600209.us.archive.org/16/items/eastafricaprotec00eliouoft/eastafricaprotec00eliouoft.pdf</ref><ref>A Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama by

E. G. RAVENSTEIN, F.R.G.S.,

CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LISBON.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46440/46440-h/46440-h.htm#Footnote_123</ref>

Stools were associated with leadership in a number of cultures, including the [[Ashanti Empire|Ashanti]], the [[Bunyoro]], the [[Rwanda]], the [[Luba people|Luba]], and the [[Kuba Kingdom|Kuba]].{{sfn|Sieber|1980|p=125}} The stools of African leaders were often elaborately decorated. Stools were also considered extremely personal in many Sub-Saharan African cultures. The Ashanti, for example, believed that a stool held its owner's soul. The stools of chiefs were considered especially important because chiefs were considered to be divine kings, and that the well-being of the kingdom was dependent on the well-being of the king's soul. After a king's death, his stool would be preserved in a shrine to preserve his soul.{{sfn|Sieber|1980|p=108}}

Line 73 ⟶ 68:

[[File:19th century American Armchair.jpg|thumb|right|250px|American Armchair (1850–1863) made of Rosewood, rosewood veneer, pine, and chestnut. Attributed to [[John Henry Belter]]. Part of the [[Baltimore Museum of Art]] collection.]]

French fashions in chairs, as with everything else, radiated from Paris. From the late 1720s, fashionable "Louis XV" French chairs were constructed without stretchers, which interfered with the unified flow of curved seatrails into '''cabriole legs''' that generally ended in scroll feet. According to strict [[guild]] regulations in force until the Revolution, French chairmaking was the business of the ''menuisier'' alone, whose craft was conjoined with that of the upholsterer (''huissier''), both of whom specialized in seat-furniture-making in Paris. A range of specialised seats were developed and given fanciful names, of which the comfortable ''[[bergère]]'' ("shepherdess") is the most familiar. Walnut and beech were the characteristics woods employed; finishes were painted in clear light tones en suite with wall panelling, gilded (sometimes ''rechampi en blanc'') or left in the natural color (''á la capuchine''), in which case walnut was the timber used. Fruitwoods were popular for chairmaking in the provinces, where the menuisier might also be called upon to provide carved and moulded ''boiseries'' for rooms. Lyon, Bordeaux and Liège all produced characteristic variations on Paris models between c.&nbsp;1725 and 1780.

<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:SothebysChairs1a.jpg|left|thumb|400px|A giltwood neoclassical chair, made circa 1770 and signed by [[Georges Jacob]].]] -->

In the late 1760s in Paris the first Parisian [[Neoclassicism|neoclassical]] chairs were made, even before the accession of [[Louis XVI]], whose name is attached to the first phases of the style. Straight tapering fluted legs joined by a block at the seat rail and architectural mouldings, characterize the style, in which each element is a discrete entity. Louis Delanois, Jean-Claude Sené and Georges Jacob were three leading chairmakers in the 1770s and 80s.

Line 82 ⟶ 76:

==19th-century chairs==

The [[artArt nouveauNouveau]] school produced chairs of simplicity. The [[Arts and Crafts movement]] produced heavy, straight lined, minimally ornamented chairs. One of the most famous of those chairs is the [[Michael Thonet]] [[bentwood]] [[No. 14 chair]] (bistro chair), created in 1859. It has revolutionized the industry and is still being produced today.

==20th-century and modern chairs==

The 20th century saw an increasing use of technology in chair construction with such things as all-metal [[folding chairs]], metal-legged chairs, the Slumber Chair, moulded plastic chairs and ergonomic chairs, recliner chairs (easy chair), [[butterfly chair]], [[beanbag chairs]], the egg or [[pod chair]], plywood and laminate wood chairs, and [[massage chair]]s.<ref>{{cite news |title=Massage Chairweb |url=https://www.thefashionjunctionfacilitysolutionsplus.com/bestblog/2019/3/13/ergonomic-serenitychairs-2dhow-zeroto-gravitychoose-massagethe-chairs/best-chair-for-you |title=Ergonomic Chairs |website=facilitysolutionsplus.com |access-date=1612 FebruaryJuly 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite2019 web|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190712232054/https://www.facilitysolutionsplus.com/blog/2019/3/13/ergonomic-chairs-how-to-choose-the-best-chair-for-you |titlearchive-date=Ergonomic12 ChairsJuly |accessdate=2019-07-12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fujiiryoki.com/eng/history/ |title=History of Massage Chairs |website=www.fujiiryoki.com |access-date=6 June 2017-04-06}}</ref> Architects such as [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] and [[Eero Saarinen]] also designed chairs to match the design of their buildings.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Belanger |first1=Christian |title=New Exhibit Gives American Chair Design Its Due Respect |url=http://www.chicagomag.com/arts-culture/February-2018/Catherine-Shotick/ |accessdateaccess-date=16 February 2018 |work=[[Chicago (magazine)|Chicago]] |date=12 February 2018}}</ref>

==See also==

Line 97 ⟶ 91:

{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography=Works cited===

{{refbegin|colwidth=30em|indent=yes}}

* {{cite book |last1=Cranz |first1=Galen |title=The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design |date=1998 |publisher=New York : W.W. Norton |isbn=978-0-393-04655-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/chairrethinkingc0000cran/}}

* {{cite book |last1=Sieber |first1=Roy |title=African furniture and household objects |date=1980 |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |isbn=978-0-253-11927-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/africanfurniture0000sieb/}}

*{{EB1911 |wstitle=Chair |volume=5 |pages=801–802 |first=James George Joseph |last=Penderel-Brodhurst |author-link=James George Joseph Penderel-Brodhurst}}▼

* {{cite book |last1=Sieber |first1=Roy |title=African Seats |date=1995 |publisher=Prestel Publishing |location=New York |isbn=978-3-7913-1426-6 |pages=31–37 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_3791314262/ |chapter=African Furniture between Tradition and Colonization}}▼

{{refend}}

▲*{{EB1911|wstitle=Chair |volume=5 |pages=801–802 |first=James George Joseph |last=Penderel-Brodhurst |author-link=James George Joseph Penderel-Brodhurst}}

==Further reading==

* {{cite book |authorlast1=WitoldCranz Rybczynski|first1=Galen |title=NowThe I Sit Me DownChair: FromRethinking KlismosCulture, toBody, Plasticand Chair: A Natural HistoryDesign |yeardate=20171998 |publisher=Farrar,New StrausYork and: W.W. GirouxNorton |isbn=978-03745370360-393-04655-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/chairrethinkingc0000cran/}}

* {{cite book |title=1000 Chairs |year=2017 |series=Bibliotheca Universalis |author1=Charlotte Fiell |author2=Peter Fiell |publisher=TASCHEN |isbn=978-3836563697}}

* {{cite book |title=Chairs: 1000 Masterpieces of Modern Design, 1800 to the Present Day |author=Charlotte Fiell |year=2012 |asin=B00L76LSDO |publisher=Goodman Books}}

* {{cite book |author=Witold Rybczynski |title=Now I Sit Me Down: From Klismos to Plastic Chair: A Natural History |year=2017 |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |isbn=978-0374537036}}

▲* {{cite book |last1=Sieber |first1=Roy |title=African Seats |date=1995 |publisher=Prestel Publishing |location=New York |isbn=978-3-7913-1426-6 |pages=31–37 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_3791314262/ |chapter=African Furniture between Tradition and Colonization}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The Chair}}