Chair

V

Medieval

Another famous chair of early medieval times is the so-called throne of Dagobert I (early 7th century, Louvre, Paris), a Carolingian folding chair constructed of cast bronze with legs in the form of animal heads and feet. One of the oldest existing chairs in England is the elaborate Gothic oak chair (13th century, Westminster Abbey, London) used for the coronation of Edward I and of most of the succeeding English kings and queens. A throne built for the archbishop Maximian in the 6th century (Museo Nazionale, Ravenna) is decorated with elaborately carved ivory plaques. See Romanesque Art and Architecture; Gothic Art and Architecture.

VI

Renaissance

The change from the conception of the chair as an emblem of power to an article for common use came about during the Renaissance (14th century to 17th century). Until the middle of the 17th century, ordinary European chairs were of oak and were not upholstered. Later, leather was used for upholstery, and then velvet and silk were used. The oak chairs were at first massive and heavy; later, cane backs and seats were introduced, as in the Louis XIII chair in France in the first half of the 17th century. Variations of this design occurred during the reigns of later French kings (see Louis XIV, XV, XVI Styles). See Renaissance Art and Architecture.

VII

English

The earliest chairs for ordinary use in England were low and had heavy, carved backs. With the beginning of the 17th century, English chairs, in imitation of French models, were made taller and lighter, and the carving on them was limited to the framework. English chairs of the later 17th century had spiral turnings and seats and backs with cane panels or needlework.

In the 18th century several notable English cabinetmakers greatly modified the typical English chair. The first and most famous of these cabinetmakers was Thomas Chippendale, who replaced the solid splat, or backpiece, of the chair with a pierced and artistically carved splat; the legs were well-proportioned carbriole or sometimes square legs. George Hepplewhite (see Hepplewhite Style), Robert Adam (see Adam [family]), and Thomas Sheraton made chairs less massive than those of Chippendale.

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VIII

Early American

The first chairs made in the American colonies were of oak or pine and were modeled on the chairs of the various countries from which the colonists came, notably England, Holland, Sweden, and Germany. In time, variations of these models appeared. In general, colonial chairs followed the changing styles of chairs in England. The Windsor chair, a strong rail-back chair made of oak, ash, or hickory, and patterned on English models, was popular in colonial days. An important American chairmaker in the first half of the 19th century was Duncan Phyfe of New York City. Hitchcock chairs, named after a Connecticut chairmaker, were often painted and were fashionable for most of the 19th century.

IX

19th and 20th Century

Some of the most popular and innovative chairs made in Europe during the 19th century were bentwood pieces produced by the Thonet brothers starting in 1849. Built of slender beechwood rods and usually fitted with cane seats, these chairs were lightweight, durable, and suitable for mass production.

In the 20th century, designers continued to experiment with nontraditional materials and techniques to create new chair forms. The Bauhaus, an avant-garde German design school, was the source of some of the most original chair designs of the 1920s; the architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Marcel Breuer produced the most enduring Bauhaus chair models—Mies's sleek Barcelona chair of chrome steel and leather and Breuer's ingenious Wassily armchair of steel tubing and canvas. Scandinavian designers, such as the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto, produced graceful chairs of molded plywood that have been popular for decades.

In the United States, the designer Charles Eames and the Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen, often working in collaboration, produced significant and much copied chair forms—the famous Eames lounge chair and ottoman of leather-upholstered molded plywood, designed in 1946, and Saarinen's molded plastic pedestal chair, often called the wineglass chair. The American sculptor Harry Bertoia—like Eames and Saarinen an alumnus of Eliel Saarinen's Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan—designed (in 1952) the classic all-metal mesh chair now called the Bertoia shell chair. All of the chairs by these major designers share several elements: elegant simplicity of line, comfort, ingenious use of materials, and capability of mass manufacture, as well as wide public acceptance.

Scandinavian and Italian furniture designers gained prominence in the second half of the 20th century, as experimentation with materials and shapes continued. Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, and other Scandinavian designers produced chairs that emphasized simplicity of shape and natural materials such as wood and leather. From the 1980s on Scandinavian furniture has stressed ergonomic design with comfort as well as posture and health in mind. Italian designers drew on a wide variety of contemporary references as they sought to break with the past and with traditional notions of elegance in furniture design. Inflatable plastic chairs appeared. So did a beanbag chair filled with synthetic balls that adjusted to the sitter’s position. Italy remained at the forefront of chair design into the 21st century, although classic modern designs continued to be popular.

See also Furniture.

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