A dining room chair

I've been wondering about the origins of everyday artifacts in my home.

Take the chair. I have six dining room chairs in Danish Modern style in my home. Quite a popular style a few years ago I'm told. I've tried to find out something about the origin of my chairs. They are simple in style, made of solid teak or rosewood, with a seat with a simple attached cushion. No arms, but a back tilted a little with two slats. I haven't found anything specific. I did find out that Danish Modern got its start during the war, when designers were seeking a way to shape a rational and bright future. To me it is a very warm, inviting, and unpretentious style, but today Modern seems to have become the very opposite: quite stark and pretentious. Anyway, Edgar Kauffman, Jr., a style guru in postwar New York City is responsible for introducing the designs to America, where they caught on quickly with young moderns. Seems that the young moderns weren't actually that radical since they liked the idea that they didn't have to defend their choice to their parents and in-laws, because of the traditional materials and craftmanship (I guess they weren't into the idea of sit-ins (see below) either). A zenith for Danish Modern was reached by the mid 60s, but by then the designs had become part of Western consciousness, and the chairs themselves are collectibles today.

The chair must be one of the most successful artifacts of all time. I've never been to a house without a chair, and never not been offered to have a seat - in a chair - unless someone wanted to get rid of me.

Chair design hasn't changed in over 4600 years. My chairs look pretty much like the oldest existing chair, give or take an armrest: that of Queen Hetepheres I of Ancient Egypt. Her chair was unearthed (and reconstructed from the gilding; the wood had turned to dust) from a tomb in Giza and dated to 2600 BC.

It's strange that there seem to be no earlier examples of chairs. There would have been a lot of tired feet and bums. And surely the chair didn't spring into existence complete with resplendent gilding. There are actually earlier illustrations and carvings of people using chairs, but ancient nomadic culture had no need for chairs - of the day, whatever they might have been. The folding portable beach/picnic chair had to wait a few millenia to evolve so wasn't available in the local shops. So there's a gap in the fossil chair record. What environmental change led the stool to evolve into a chair, if that was indeed the route?

It's also strange that it took so long for the chair to really catch on. Up until the Renaissance the great masses were still not allowed apparently to nail a back or arms to their stools. Perhaps Queen Hetepheres had more influence than just good taste in furniture. Being mother of Khufu, the builder of the Great Pyramid, she must have had a bit of clout when it came to establishing the Secret Society of Chair Enthusiasts - sworn to hide and protect the chair from the masses.

Even the etymology of chair reveals its cultural pedigree (as etymology so often does). The word chair comes from the ancient Greek kathedrā (kata-, down + hedrā, seat), which is also the origin of cathedral, the principal church of a bishop, that holds his seat or throne. And of course, even today a chair is a leader.

The chair hasn't been successful in all environments. Many cultures don't use chairs, preferring instead the ground, floor, rugs, mats, or cushions. But the chair has been so successful in Western cultures that it has set up a feeling in me, and probably most people, as strong as an instinct that it is wrong (dirty?, uncultured?) to sit on the floor. And so it is counterculture to sit on the floor and to have sit-ins. Or perhaps it's not an instinct but a physical need for comfort, presuming our Western bodies have evolved and changed to need chairs. In either case, the future of chairs is assured. I'm not sure what could replace them.

So, I've been unable to find out precisely how the chair evolved. The oldest existing chair was already perfectly adapted to its environment, and apparently the environment hasn't changed that much in 4600 years. Still, there have been some stunning adaptations in the chair. I think my favourite example is the swivel chair, specialized for the office space - and impressing foreign dignitaries. Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, invented the swivel chair. I can see him now, spinning around behind the Oval Office desk in front of a stunned leader of another nation. That would say power! This didn't last long. General George S. Patton apparently said "No good decision was ever made in a swivel chair."

Scandinavian furniture (read IKEA or the older incarnation Danish Modern) might seem popular, but the pinnacle of chair evolution must be the monobloc chair that adorns almost every patio in the world. Every 70 seconds a new monobloc comes into existence by a single press, and even the presses have multiplied around the world (in Russia, Taiwan, Australia, Mexico, USA, Italy, France, Germany, Morocco, Turkey, Israel, and China). At $3 a piece, they've found their niche and they aren't moving.

Other key adaptions include the comfy chair, the recliner, the folding chair. What is your favourite chair?

So, how did the chairs get into my house? Something made an ancient Egyptian decide that chairs were indispensable, eventually the secret couldn't be contained, and now we can't imagine life without them. For dining, it's unthinkable to not sit in a chair. I must have chairs.

Links:
Chair of Hetepheres
History of Egyptian Furniture
monobloc chairs
Scandinavian Modern

Next post: the pencil.