The History of Chairs

American Queen Anne Sidechair, John Elliott, 1750

This coveted chair combines two virtues: European gracefulness and American sturdiness. Though Queen Anne was the reigning British monarch just before this time (and independence was still more than a quarter-century away for the colony), this chair, commonly made from walnut or mahogany, also incorporates the influence of Dutch craftsmen who moved to the New World. The carving, a shell motif, is simple yet beautiful, and the seat and legs are wider than usual. Imagine the women’s fashions of the time and you’ll realize how perfectly this chair accommodated its guests. Ladies in voluminous dresses with huge bustles on each hip might not have been comfortable in their corsets but would have been more at ease perched on these generous seats.

Louis XV Fauteil, 1755

When you hear the words “Louis the 15th fauteuil,” this armchair is the lovely specimen in question. You can recognize it immediately by its curved back, delicate lines and the fact that it looks like it’s wearing elegant elbow patches on its shapely arms. It is perhaps the most classic and best known of French antique chairs, originating in the era of King Louis XV. The king and his influential commoner mistress, Madame de Pompadour, were lovers of not only each other but also of fine, comfortable furnishings like this versatile and relatively light chair. With its pretty carvings of elements like baskets, flowers and ribbons, it stands in contrast to the chunky furniture of the previous era.

George III Faux Bamboo Open Armchair, 1775

If there is any chair that looks as utterly sophisticated yet welcoming as this faux bamboo armchair, we have yet to see it. Crafted from mahogany or walnut, these chairs belong to the Georgian era of furnishings, a movement from England that exalted airiness, spaciousness and delicacy. While the look of exotic bamboo was much desired in the era before easy travel, real bamboo was not used in chair production in England at the time. This fast-growing grass would have had to be imported from Asia and was not durable enough for the relatively cold and wet English climate.

Thonet Bentwood Armchair, Michael Thonet, 1830

Although curved wood has been around since the invention of wheels, barrels and boats, in the 1830s, German furniture maker Michael Thonet mastered the art of steaming and bending wood to make lightweight chairs that are still prized around the world. At the time, household necessities were starting to be mass-produced; one of the reasons for this chair’s popularity was that Thonet cannily marketed his creations in catalogues and international stores, according to the Brooklyn Museum. Bentwood chairs designed by Thonet are still being made at the original factory, now known as TON, in the Czech Republic.

Wassily Chair, Marcel Breuer, 1925

During the Jazz Age, Modernism was in full-blown form at Bauhaus, the German Arts and Crafts school where the designer of this chair, Marcel Breuer, studied. Radically straight lines, simplicity, restraint – these austere approaches to design ushered in the modern era. It’s incredible how futuristic the Wassily chair looks, considering it’s 90 years old. Made of steel tubing and fabric, the chair was originally named the B3. Later, the name was changed to Wassily for the renowned artist Wassily Kandinsky because he loved the chair, and he and Breuer were friends and colleagues. If you’ve ever sat in one, you’ll know the Wassily chair is surprisingly comfortable, too.

Barcelona chair, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1929

“Less is more.” This ode to minimalism is attributed to the designer of this chair and the father of modern architecture, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. All supple leather, orderly buttons and shining chrome scissor legs, the Barcelona chair has been a huge artistic and commercial success since its creation on the cusp of the 1930s. This time period was the dawn of the skyscraper – it’s easy to envisage this crisp and polished seat in one of those awe-inspiring new towers.

Tubular brno chair, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, 1929

Famous architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created this elegant chair for a house he was commissioned to design in Brno, in the former Czechoslovakia – thus the chair’s name, pronounced “bur-noh.” It is widely speculated, however, that the chair was in fact the brainchild of the architect’s collaborator, Lilly Reich, one of the few women who designed commercial furniture in the male-dominated industry. What makes it iconic is its amazing cantilevered design: The sinuous tubular steel frame makes its guests appear to defy gravity.

Cité Armchair, Jean Prouvé, 1930

Relaxed, low-slung lines characterize this lounge armchair made of steel and leather that Jean Prouvé began designing in late- 1920s France. The chair is so clearly a child of its time, the newly casual Roaring Twenties. Fashion was turned on its head, Coco Chanel’s body-conscious dresses relegated corsets and bustles to the dustbin and men started dressing in sporty, casual clothes. In this historical context, the laid-back seating position of the Cité comes as no surprise. Its ergonomics encourage easy socializing or late-night reading – apt, considering it was designed to furnish a university residence in Nancy, France.

Womb Chair, Eero Saartnen, 1948

The Womb chair honours coziness and comfort in fairly stark contrast to the modernist chairs that preceded it. By the end of the Second World War, people needed a return to the simple creature comforts of a soft place to sit. “I designed the Womb chair because there seemed to be a need for a large and really comfortable chair to take the place of the old overstuffed version. Today, more than ever before, we need to relax,” Finnish-American designer Eero Saarinen once said. The eternal appeal of this chair is that Saarinen’s proclamation still holds true.

Dar, Charles and Ray Eames, 1948

The name DAR is an acronym for Dining Armchair Rod. And while it looks like it was created in the last decade – what with its up-to-date materials like plastic and chrome – this simple seat is straight out of the late 1940s and was the first mass-produced plastic chair. California-based designers Charles and Ray Eames debuted this chair at MoMA in a low-cost furniture design competition, where it took second place. Interestingly, advances in plastic and fibreglass technology developed during the Second World War made the DAR’s design possible.

Wire Chair, Charles and Ray Eames, 1951

A wire chair is always a bit of an unexpected choice, so imagine how surprising this shape would have been in 1951 when it was created by California based designers Charles and Ray Eames. The married couple became inspired by wire baskets, trays and dress forms after they had mastered bent plywood and plastic pieces like the DAR chair. Their first challenge was to shape and weld the steel in such a way as to make it strong but light. The second was to design optional seat pads that would not only look good and be comfortable and durable but also stay put. The Wire chair lives on thanks to its versatility and is still available through Design Within Reach, with or without pads.

Diamond Chair, Harry Bertota, 1952

It may not come as a surprise that the Diamond chair was created by Harry Bertoia – a designer who worked for Charles and Ray Eames, creators of the Wire chair, history’s other popular metal chair. What made the Diamond chair a true groundbreaker wasn’t just its wire frame, but the undulating diamond shape. It’s a daring design for a period when America was becoming increasingly conservative and enamoured with smooth wood furnishings and cloth upholstery.

Tulip Chair, Eero Saartnen, 1956

Whether you think the Tulip chair resembles the simple flower it’s named after or a tall wineglass, it definitely looks mod. As it goes, designers and artists develop the concepts, motifs and fashions that take the world by storm, and the Tulip chair preceded the huge swing in culture that came a few years after its creation. No other chair so neatly conveys the futuristic miniskirts- and-white-go-go boots vibe of the Swinging Sixties. Fans of the original Star Trek TV show in the late 1960s might remember that the Tulip chair appeared on the USS Enterprise.

Egg Chair, Arne Jacobsen, 1958

Swooping organic lines characterize the Egg chair, designed in the late 1950s in Denmark. Like a number of the iconic chairs that came before it, the Egg chair was created for a particular locale. In this case, the swivelling, tilting lounge chair was intended for the lobby and reception areas of The SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen, which was completed in 1960. In 2008, 999 special Egg chairs were produced for its 50th anniversary.

Panton Chair, Verner Panton, 1960

The Panton chair is sometimes called “the sexiest of all chairs” for its fluid shape and frequent appearance in fashion magazines like Vogue. Ironic, then, that creator Verner Panton apparently found inspiration for this plastic stackable chair at a factory that made decidedly unsexy buckets and safety helmets. With its ultra bright range of hues and funky shape, the Panton chair heralds the beginning of the pop art movement, whose notable artists include Andy Warhol and David Hockney. The Panton chair is the first cantilevered chair (meaning no back legs) made from plastic

Shell Chair, Hans Wegner, 1963

Resting on three legs instead of the conventional four, the Shell chair continues to invite guests with its wide wing-like seat and reclined position. Its bentwood frame and arching lines have come to epitomize Danish Modern style and Mid-Century Modern style, too. This lounge chair, also called the “smiling chair,” wasn’t an immediate hit with the public and didn’t sell particularly well when originally produced. But in the 1990s, collectors and decorators rediscovered the chair, and it became a hotly purchased classic.

High Sticking Chair, Rank Gehry, 1990

It’s fitting that a Toronto-born architect would give his chair a hockey-inspired name, isn’t it? When Frank Gehry – the architect responsible for the world-renowned Guggenheim Museum Bilbao – designed this chair made of maple veneer, it was hailed by the New York Times as an instant classic. A number of museums displayed the High Sticking chair before it was even available for purchase by the public. The all-wood chair does indeed evoke hockey sticks, but also ribbons and crates.

Prince Aha Stool, Philippe Starck, 1996

This simple stool is deceptively flexible. It can be flipped for use on either end, and the end caps lift off to provide storage as well. Its Parisborn designer, Philippe Starck, created this and other plastic masterpieces as a response to the glut of cheap plastic chairs that had flooded the market. Anyone who lived through the 1990s will recall that this was the beginning of fast-fashion culture, when merchandise prices came down, along with quality. The Prince AHA stool was intended as a democratic foil to that downward trend.

Louis Ghost Chair, Philippe Starck, 2000

History repeats itself, but in this case it was marvellously reinvented. The Louis Ghost chair riffs on the regal Louis XV chair that came more than two centuries before it. “You are not sure exactly what it is, but everyone recognizes it and sees it as something familiar,” Starck has said. It’s comfortable; it’s affordable compared to other iconic chairs; and it’s impervious to wear and tear, according to Kartell, the company that manufactures the chair. It also kicked off a renaissance of clear polypropylene/acrylic furniture, which had its first heyday in the 1970s.

Masters Chair, Philippe Starck and Eugent Quitllet, 2009

The Masters chair comes by its name honestly – it’s inspired by three taste-making chairs of the past and their “masters.” The DAR’s Eiffel Tower-style base by Charles and Ray Eames, the Tulip chair by Eero Saarinen and the Series 7 by Arne Jacobsen all contribute to this chair’s pared-down shape and woven-look backrest. Like the Louis Ghost chair, it’s made out of one single piece of polypropylene and is stackable. As it’s six years old, time will tell if it stands up as a classic. However, judging by its elegant shape and versatility as an indoor or outdoor piece, we think it will.