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Out of each of the furniture objects, the chair might be the primary one. While most of the other items (save for the bed) are designed to support objects, the chair supports the human form. The term chair can be said here in the most open sense, from stool to throne to derivative pieces like the bench and sofa, which might be considered as extended or connected chairs, and whose character (i.e., whether they are intended for sitting or reclining) is not evidently labeled.

The social history of the chair is as stimulating as its history as an art and craft. The chair is not merely a physical support and/or aesthetic artwork; it was historically a signifier of social standing. In the old royal courts there were plain signifiers between being seated on a chair with arms, or a chair with a back but no arms, or worse having to use a stool. From the last century, a director’s and manager’s chair has been an identifier of superior standing, and in democratic governments the speaker sits on a higher level.

In a furniture creation, the chair is utilised for a range of various forms. There are chairs designed to attend to man’s age and physical condition (the high chair, the wheelchair) and to connotate his standing in society (the executive chair, the throne). In past times there were chairs to be born in (birth chairs); in the 20th century, there have been chairs used 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 have chairs that can be folded up, chairs on wheels, and chairs on runners.

Modern living has derived new chairs for use in automobiles and aircraft. Every one of these chair kinds have been perfected to fit to different human requirements. For its particular association with man, the chair comes to its full significance only when used. Though it does not make a difference to one’s appreciation of a cupboard or a set of drawers if there is anything inside or not, a chair is understood best and judged best with a person sitting on it, for chair and sitter need each other. Thus the different areas of the chair have been given labels like the parts of the human body: arms, legs, feet, back, and seat.

Because the basic work of the chair is to support the body, its worth is valued basically by how well it fulfills this practical purpose. In the manufacture of the chair, the chair maker is restricted by the static regulation and principal measurements. Within these restrictions, however, the chair designer has large freedom.

The history of the chair is a period of several thousand years. There are cultures that created unique chair forms, seen of the topmost endeavour in the industries of technique and art. Within these civilisations, a mention 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 masterful scheme, are now a finding from discoveries made in tombs. The first of the two is a four-legged chair with a back, the other a folding stool. The original Egyptian chair would have had four legs structured not unlike those of a particular animal, a curved seat, with a sloping back supported over vertical stretchers. From this a durable triangular structure was obtained. There was to our knowledge no particular difference between the design of Egyptian thrones and chairs for regular citizens. The real change exists in the kind of ornamentation, in the selection of pricey inlays. The Egyptian folding stool most probably was created as an easily packed seat for army. As a camp stool this kind existed until much later periods of time. But the stool then was made for the role of a ceremonial seat, its technical role as a folding stool simply forgotten. This can from today be noted, from as early as 1366–57 BC in two stools, crafted in ebony with ivory inlay work and gold mounts, from the tomb of Tutankhamen. They were in the shape of folding stools but aren’t able to be folded as the seats are formed out of wood. The simplistic construction of the folding stool, being of two frames that cycle on metal bolts and bear a seat of leather or fabric secured between them, then appeared at some time later during the Bronze Age folding chairs of Scandinavia and northern Germany. The most recognised of those is the folding stool, crafted out of ashwood, which is now at Guldhøj (National Museum in Copenhagen).

Greece and Rome
The typical Greek chair, the klismos, is found not with any ancient fossil still in form but as seen from a variety of pictorial evidence. The best recognised is the klismos depicted on the Hegeso Stele at the Dipylon burial area in outer Athens (c. 410 BC). This klismos is a chair that had a backward-sloping, curved backboard and four curving legs, only two of those could be seen. These odd legs were most likely to be manufactured from bent wood and were probably bore huge pressure under the weight of the sitter. The joints joining the legs to the frame of the seat had to be therefore very stable and were overtly denoted.

The Romans emulated the Greek chair; a number of models of seated Romans show designs of a thicker and in appearance slightly less intricately designed klismos. Both styles, light or heavy, were seen again in the Classicist era. The klismos influence is seen in French Empire styles, in English Regency, and in some special types of notable originality within Denmark and Sweden from 1800.

China
The history of the chair in China isn’t able to be followed as long as chairs in Egypt and Greece. Since the time of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) an unscathed serial of images and artworks was kept, detailing the interiors and outer parts of Chinese homes and their furniture. Kept also since the 16th century are some chairs made of wood or lacquered wood, that possess an interesting familiarity to styles of older chairs.

As were the designs in Egypt, two fundamental chair forms existed in China: a chair that had four legs and a folding stool. The four-legged chair is seen both with and without arms but always with its square seat and straight stiles (vertical side supports) to give support to the back. In one style, it has been seen, the stiles had been delicately curved by the arms for the purpose of sit correctly with the shape of the S-shaped back splat (the central upright of a chairback). Each of the three areas had been mortised into the yoke-like top rail. While the idea of this back splat then had an influence on English chairs of the Queen Anne period, wooden sections that only to a restricted ability stabilise corner joints (and were loose as a result) represent an element particular to Chinese chairs. The four legs pass through the seat frame, which ends around the rounded staves. Members are round in section or possesses rounded edges—references perhaps to the bamboo tradition. The seat is unpleasant to sit in and had on occasion a plaited form. These chairs needed the sitter to hold themselves stiff and upright; if too much pressure is placed on the back, the chair has a habit of collapsing. In patriarchal Chinese houses of this era armchairs likely were kept for the senior persons, for they were held in great respect.

The Chinese folding stool is presumed to have come to China from the West. It is not dissimilar that much from the Egyptian and Scandinavian folding stools, but it has a dissimilarity in that the top rail is delicately affixed to the two legs of the stool by using a curved member, which is more often than not seen with metal mounts. From a Western viewpoint the ultimate effect of both these furniture items is stylized. The manufacture and decorative parts are combined in a way that is all at once naïve and refined. The piecemeal appearance is an outcome of the way that the individual items do not look to have been joined together by either glue or screws, but are mortised with one another and held in position in the manner of a Chinese puzzle.

Spain: 17th century
The Golden Age of Spain of the 17th century also had its name on the chair. Artworks display a style of chair with a relatively crude wooden frame; a back and seat, nailed on, having only two layers of leather, with horsehair stuffing between the layers, stitched to produce a pattern of small pads. The front board and a related board at the back could be folded after loosening some little iron hooks. Thus the chair was an easily portable piece of furniture while traveling which, in the same time, gave the dignity of a four-legged, high-backed armchair.

The Netherlands: 17th century
A low, square, upholstered style of chair can be evidenced in engravings of the interior of affluent Dutch homes by Abraham Bosse, a French artist, as well as in paintings by the Dutch artists Johannes Vermeer and Gerard Terborch. While this type of chair may also be made in countries in which Dutch styles of interior decoration and Dutch furniture won critical acclaim, it is not determined that the form actually started in The Netherlands. Normally, the legs of the chair will be smooth, round in section, and of slim measurements; they are sometimes baluster-shaped (vase-shaped) or twisted. It is unquestionably a bourgeois piece of furniture and was manufactured in impressive numbers, as evidenced from one of Abraham Bosse’s engravings, in which there is a whole row of this kind of chairs lined up against a wall. The style asserts itself by its harmonious proportions and expensive 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 is, as developed in Paris around 1750—disseminated through most of Europe and was imitated or copied into the mid-20th century. The model owes the popularity to a combination of relaxation and delicacy. The seat adheres to the human body and grants a relaxed sitting position. The back is bow-shaped, the legs curved. Typically the seat and back are upholstered, and there are little upholstered pads on the armrests. Smooth transitions made between seat frame, legs, and back conceal all the joints, which are solidly constructed on craftsmanlike practices despite the absence of stretchers between the legs.

French Rococo chairs and imitations thereof employ wood of quite thick dimensions; but each member is deeply molded, all extraneous wood has been taken away, and more expensive examples may be further embellished with intricately delicate and decorative carving. The wood may be varnished, stained, painted, or gilded. Silk damask or tapestry may be used for all upholstery on the seat, back, and armrests; canework is in some cases used rather than upholstery.

English chairs in the 18th century were more varied in design than the French. The French touch for stylistic uniformity, which lead from the most distinguished circles in Paris and Versailles through most of France and was popularised in many 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 commonly known and was widely distributed throughout the world.

Late 18th to 20th century
Within 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 versions 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.

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