Chair | Definition, Types, & Facts

chair, seat with a back, intended for one person. It is one of the most ancient forms of furniture, dating from the 3rd dynasty of ancient Egypt (c. 2650–c. 2575 bce).

It was common for early Egyptian chairs to have legs shaped like those of animals. The seats were corded or dished (hollowed) in wood and topped with a pad or cushion. The ancient Greek klismos was once considered one of the most elegant chair designs. The seat, of plaited cord, was supported on sharply curved sabre-shaped legs, tapering to the feet. The horizontal back rail, curved to fit the body, was supported on three uprights. The scissors chair, or X-chair, which had a seat supported on an X-shaped frame, dates back at least to Roman times. It was especially popular in the 14th and 15th centuries in western Europe and reached great heights of elegance in Italy during the Renaissance. Renaissance chairs were of two principal varieties: those light enough to be moved easily and those heavy thronelike seats used by the head of a household or other important people.

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furniture: Chair

In Tudor England the chair for the master of the house had a heavy boxlike frame and was placed on a dais in the great hall. Turned (shaped on a lathe) chairs, which had been used from early times, reached their most elaborate forms at this time, their frames consisting of turned posts and spindles. Many chairs in the 16th century depended on upholstery for decoration. Square in outline, this type had a back formed by a pair of uprights spanned by a strip of velvet or brocade trimmed with fringes or a strip of leather, sometimes tooled. The material was held in place by large-headed brass nails. In the 17th century large numbers of richly carved chairs were produced. In Italy many pieces of furniture were the work of sculptors, the most outstanding of whom was Andrea Brustolon. His suite of chairs now in the Ca’ Rezzonico in Venice, with legs and arms carved as gnarled tree trunks and branches, arms supported by black boys with heads and arms of ebony and breeches of boxwood, marked his zenith.

In France the square lines of 16th-century chairs gradually gave way to more luxurious padding and carved arms ending in scrolls or animals’ heads. During the reign of Louis XIV, furniture became grander. Chair backs became higher and had curved tops, arms were sometimes upholstered, seats were wider, and woodwork was finely carved and gilded or painted.

mahogany ribbonback chairs

Mahogany ribbonback chairs in the Rococo style, designed by Thomas Chippendale, 18th century

In England the Restoration brought a similar trend toward more luxurious living, but the exuberant styles imported by large numbers of immigrant Continental craftsmen had to be modified for English tastes. A finely carved front stretcher became fashionable but was abandoned at the end of the 17th century with the introduction of the cabriole leg. The gently curved back and cabriole legs of chairs first used in the Queen Anne period in England remained popular for half a century. Rococo design showed itself in the ribbonback, or ribband-back, chairs (chairs whose splats are curved in an intricate pattern of ribbons and bows) and “French chairs” illustrated in Thomas Chippendale’s Gentleman and Cabinetmaker’s Director, which also recorded the popularity of Gothic and chinoiserie (Chinese-style) designs.

side chair

Side chair, Honduras mahogany and ebony with inlay of silver, abalone, copper, pewter, and exotic woods, designed by Charles Sumner Greene and Henry Mather Greene, c. 1907; in the Brooklyn Museum, New York.

American furniture makers sometimes adapted simplified versions of English styles from the late 17th century. Windsor chairs were particularly popular in the late 18th century and were developed to a greater degree than in England.

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The Neoclassical movement in the 1760s led a return to straight but more delicate lines, with England and France setting the fashion for Europe. Straight tapering and reeded legs and square, oval, or shield-shaped backs were the mode. The most elegant English chairs of the Regency period and French chairs of the Empire period adapted the sabre leg of the Greek klismos. French chairs after the Revolution of 1789 were much simpler and more austere. England and France continued to dominate chair fashions throughout most of the 19th century, but styles were largely adaptations of those of previous eras.

After World War I the architect and designer Marcel Breuer developed the first tubular steel chair, a cantilevered form with a frame made from a continuous tubular strip. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair of 1929, with its gently curved steel supports and buttoned leather upholstery, is a modern classic. Le Corbusier, a Swiss-born architect, experimented with laminated bentwood chairs, as did the Finn Alvar Aalto. Molded forms were extended to entire chairs in both plywood and plastic by the Americans Charles Eames and Ray Eames and the Finn Eero Saarinen. Among the developments of the late 20th century were the beanbag chair and an inflatable plastic chair. See also ladder-back chair; wainscot chair.

The decoration, size and sheer ornamental design of the chair talks a lot about an individual  sitting on it. Indeed, during the early times of the pharaohs, the chair was destined for the mighty and high status. Meaning, only lords, bishops or kings were given the rare opportunity to sit on classy chairs, the rest of the community had to do with sitting on benches, stools, or chests.

The chair and the church have an even deeper link, as the term “chair” is derived from the Latin word “cathedra” which simply means the link between the church that was the seat of a bishop which is considered a cathedral. The chair however, goes further back than the Latin era. The Egyptians having come up with some extreme ornamental chairs for their rulers and pharaohs, while the Ancient Greeks dated back to 1400 BC were constructing chairs with four strong wooden legs. Their design and motifs are adopted by the Ancient Romans who introduced it in all the lands that they conquered.

Chairs evolved and were modified by intricate carvings and polychromatic surface treatments for the essential members of the community, but in the mid 1600s, chairs have been regarded as a common furniture and upholstery were then introduced.

During the mid 1700s, majority of chair designers and carpenters had come to agreement that the chair should not only look appealing, but should be actually comfortable to sit on as well. Hence, the chairs that were regarded as body hugger emerged. These chairs possess curved legs and bow shaped backs. The arm rests were padded and in some cases it was intricately embroidered and stitched, too. It was during this era that the “chaise lounge”, the forerunner of the sofa emerged, this being a type of chair on which a lady could somehow recline.

Chair has evolved into one of the most prominent furniture in the universe. The design has also developed throughout the ages.

The French Era also has an excellent contribution on the evolution of the history of the chair. The prime comfortable lightweight chairs being enhanced by French designers. Their efforts has given a notch of class of upholstered chairs, such as arm chairs, sleeping chairs, sofa beds, wing chairs, and chairs characterized by heights that is more comfortable to use aside from other chairs.

Meanwhile, In Victorian England, the legs of the chairs were designed in many concepts, as it was feared that they might resemble those of a women and such might awaken the senses. Over the years, the construction of chairs has changed drastically as well.

During the 18th century, before furniture has become a mass production for commercial and factory purposes, chairs were made as per details with even more curves as compared before. This creates a different level of beauty, a method that need considerable more types of material as compared to the curved sections, the backs and legs, being usually sawn out of solid wood in one piece.