Class \ S %% o Book_.^A5: Gqpigfe'N" COFXRICHT DEPOSnt THE [NOV ^6 '^^•^iN DREWS \ Co* .^=^i CHICAGO ..^ THE EFOLUTION . CHAIR A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGo/-/ <^'^ I. EGYPT For many of the ancient and mediaeval chairs of this'book we are indebted to the "Ornamentale Formenlehre" of Professor Meyer, of the School of Industrial Art, at Carlsnihe. ,THE ipLunoN; Cop^riabt 1895 3B^ B. lb. Hn&rcwg & Co. m t The Evolution iUh Chair,, 1HERE has always existed a tendency to make articles of common use and convenience ob- jects of luxury as well, and the ingenuity and taste of some great artists have been lavished in giving beauty to them. This fact is nowhere more strongly demonstrated than in the ornamen- tation of household furniture; and, in this department, XTbC Cbatt has a special interest for us, since it is practically the one article of furni- ture that has existed, in some form or other, since civilization began. THE EVOLUTIOX The study of this, therefore, gives us an insight into the tastes, man- ners, and customs of many peoples. Although the forms and orna- ments of the chair may not always refer to the style of building, yet investigation will show that they have in a general way corresponded to the prevailing architecture of the period, and that in progress or retrogression their styles have kept an even pace with it. XlbC Cbair tells us that the ancient Egyptians, in their customs and habits, were more like Euro- peans than like Asiat^'cs. They did not sit, cross-legged, on divans or carpets as did the eastern races, nor did they recline while eating as the Romans. They sat in chairs so like our own that, if we were to change their style of ornamenta- No. loVz METAL. WOOD SEAT OF THE CHAIR II. EGYPT A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION tion, we should have a very mod- ern chair. These were often heavily upholstered, the arms and backs as well as the seats. See our Figure II. Sometimes the Egyptians sat on stools, and their choice in this matter seems to have been very largely reg- ulated by their purses. Owing to the perishable nature of the materials from which chairs have always been made, few very old ones exist. But there is in the British Museum an BG^PtiaU stool — Figure I — that is probably the old- est chair in existence, dating back at least three thousand years before Christ. It is made of ebony, with ivory trimmings, is put together with ivory, and has an ivory seat. Egyptian chairs were covered with sculptured decorations: scenes of every-day life, the wars, the soci- ety gossip of the times; and the Nos. I, 2 and 3 METAL OF THE CHAIR III. ASSYRIA A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTIOX ends of the arms were frequently carved as tiger heads. The use of the turning-lathe was known, and its products varied from beautiful to fantastic. The extraordinary dryness of the climate helped to preserve to us a few examples of Egyptian chairs; but the HSSprian were not so for- tunate, and, for what we know of these curious seats, we have to de- pend upon the illustrations on the stones unearthed by Mr. Layard and his successors. The earliest represented are without backs or arms, but the legs are ver}^ taste- fully carved. Figure III represents a chair that came a little later, yet is very typical of the style. It is from a Khorsabad slab. It had the back and arms which had early been added, and a curious point is the No. 6. METAL OF THE CHAIR IV. ASSYRIA A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION human and animal figures support- ing them, in the manner of the Greek caryatides and atlantes of a later period. Sometimes the whole chair was supported by an animal: a lion, a sheep, oftener ahorse. The Persians adopted this mode of deco- rating their thrones. The back of our Figure III is incomplete. The fracture shown terminates the bas-relief as it now is, and we could complete the chair only by a "restoration." Westward through Asia Minor to Greece there was such constant intercourse that it hardly seems strange that many of the Assyrian forms should have been wrought into the Greek designs. In Figure IV we have one of the later Assyrian that shows a prototype of some of the Grecian ornament. Indeed, the ritish Museum has a Greek bas- OF THE CHAIR V. GREECE A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION relief from Lycia, which shows this same chair more fully developed in its ornamentation. The Greeks used a couch or lounge generally, and slept, as well as rested, upon it; but they also had chairs, some of which were very beautiful. Figure V was used in dwellings. Its seat was usually made from the bones of sheep. These were often very highly pol- ished and were decorated with a colored dye. This chair appears in many of the pictures of Greek family life. It was often draped with a skin, and was used especially as a lady's chair. Its back is the *' klismos," found in later styles. A (5teeF? chair of entirely differ- ent type is the massive one shown in Figure VI. This was used in lANO DUET OF THE CHAIR VI. ATHENS A. H. ANDRKWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTIOX public places. Our cut is a chair that stood by the door of the temple of Themis at Athens and bore an inscription below the seat. Love of ease must surely have originated such a style as is shown in Figure VII and was used by the Roman senators. In the home of a IROlliaU each room had a special style of seat. In the dining-room, couches were used for reclining while eating, and in the other rooms seats for two, or only one, as the use of the room required. They also had a folding chair, which they carried about with them and sometimes placed in their chariots. This had a curious name — sella curulis — from currus — a chariot, that has lasted for many styles of folding chairs through all the ages. ■lANO DUET — OPEN OF THE CHAIR VII. ROME A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION The chair of Pompeii, or Hercu- laneum , shown in Figure VIII , is not so elaborate in design as the other Roman chair, yet it had a footstool always, and the ornamentation was much the same. The "Ornamentale Formenlehre" shows a beautiful Roman chair, too elaborate for our sketches, whose sides are sphinxes supporting the seat, their lifted wings forming the graceful arms. After the fall of the IRontait Em- pire all Europe was so devastated by wars that nearly ten centuries rolled by during which the people had little time to make good fur- niture of any kind, and much that was made perished in the general turmoil of those centuries. No. ii6 cnoc.kafhek's OF THE CHAIR VIII. POMPEII A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION We have an old chair — Figure IX — from Htrtca. The seat of this chair is of sheepskin stretched tight, like a drum-head, while the back was made of catgut like that used for musical instruments. It is of ebony inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, and the front legs are evidently of solid ivory. No. 116 EXTENDED OF THE CHAIR IX. ETHIOPIA A. H. ANDRKWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION Figure X is a beautiful example of the Mohammedan art which has brought us so much of beauty. This art sprang from the Byzantine Christian architecture. It attained its highest beauty in Constantino- ple, India, and Spain — in mosques, tombs, and palaces. This chair is incrusted with ivory, mother-of- pearl, and turtle-shell, and the shell is of special interest, since the pro- cess by which the /IDOOtS worked this material is lost to us. They had a method of heating it and twisting it into spirals. Some of the chairs were made almost com- pletely of ivorj^ and some folded like the old curules of Rome, which they slightly resembled. The chair we show is very plainly a derivative from the ancient camp- stool. Very charming chairs of this form , No. (i Ot'ERA OF THE CHAIR X. ARABIA A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION without the oriental ornamentation, were in use in England in the four- teenth century and probably earlier. Figure XI, an old Norwegian chair, is interesting as showing the Norseman's early adoption of the arabesque. This form of ornament is older than the Arab cult, but is named as it is because it came to us more through the. Arab influ- ence than by the Greek and Ro- man. This IRorwa^ work is of course very crude, and lacks en- tirely the delicate touch of the Moor. Its curious irregularities suggest the wandering fancy of a child. Some of these Norse chairs were more elaborate than our example, and had carv^ed animals under the arms, in the manner of our Assyrian Figure III. OF THE CHAIR XI. NORWAY— I2TH Century A. H, ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION During this time the chair for the most of Europe was often but a mere box, square, and with no back or arms, with a sort of cabi- net underneath where its owner kept his private belongings. But in 5talp some of the cities sustained a high civilization, and the Venetian chair — Figure .XII — is very quaint and rich. ' - AUUITOKIUM XII. VENICE THE EVOLUTION The illustration, Figure XIII, is a chair in the Louvre, known as the Dagobert chair, and is as early a mediaeval chair as exists. It is of bronze and is said to have been ex- ecuted by a monk, St. Eloi, for Dagobert, King of jftaUCC, early in the seventh century. It was originally a folding chair. The addition of its back, in the twelfth century, is attributed to Suger, the great abbot of St. Denis, builder and politician, regent of France during the absence of Louis VII in the second crusade. A reproduction of the Dagobert, in walnut, is now making by M. Ernest of Paris. OF THE CHAIR XIII. FRANCE— Dagobert A. H. ANDRKWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION It was during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries that Gothic architecture attained such promi- nence throughout Europe, and the zeal for religious building gave us a great many examples of chairs. They were used in the vestries, and as stalls in the cathedrals. Figure XIV was of this style, a chair of state, and is an extraordinary speci- men of the (BOtbtC designer's deli- cate taste. The accompanying ottomans, or tabourets, are a very ancient thought, being a development from the primitive stool. OF THE CHAIR A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION Figure XV was also a chair used for stalls and in dwellings. It was always made with a high and solid back, and the style was very com- mon during the fourteenth and into the fifteenth century. The usefulness of the high back was the reason for its existence, since it served to protect its occu- pant from any surprise or attack from the rear. Henry the Third of France was assassinated by a monk, who had adopted every pos- sible ruse to persuade him to move, finally inducing him to turn to the light to read a letter, and stabbing him while in this position. Chairs of this solidity of structure were often fitted with a canopy, or baldachin, of wood, a very happy addition when the church or palace roof was not tight. THE EVOLUTION The chair like Figure XVI was used in dwellings and was placed against the wall. Its wooden back was often covered with Spanish leather. To give an idea of the cost of ancient work: Philip the Tall, 13 1 6, paid for a chair, or rather a throne, 774 ecus, or about $1,548, an enormous sum of money for that time. From a description of the chair it must have been a marvel. There were 212 miniatures painted upon it, each covered with a very thin piece of crystal — mica, prob- ably — each framed with cut jewels and carved bronze, and the spaces between gilded. The pictures were a connected story of the glories of the king and his religion. OF THE CHAIR XVI. FRANCE- 14TH Century A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION It was during this fourteenth cen- tury that fringe first began to be used, and leather, sometimes, to cover the wood. The leather was often decorated in designs made with a hot iron, a custom imported from Spain, and reaching the height of its popularity at Cordova. The desire to sit for some time after eat- ing led to a more comfortable chair with more room, and with a slop- ing back, and in the sixteenth cen- tury the Europeans began to uphol- ster their furniture. Figure XVII is a beautifully carved walnut (BCUOCSC chair, in- crusted with mother-of-pearl and ivory, and, though sometimes of lighter wood, always with a seat of Genoa velvet and splendid gold trimmings. This chair was elsewhere, also, for we find it in the cathedral of OF THE CHAIR XVII. GENOA— i6th Centuky A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION Sens, France; and a very similar one was in use in England in the same age. Figure XVIII was an Italian chair that was called a "parrot's chair," and was always found in the halls. It usually had a mon- ogram, or the coat of arms of the family, carved on the back. It belongs to the sixteenth century. A similar form, with less orna- ment, was in use in Germany then, and, by the seventeenth, very elab- orate chairs of this form were found there, radiant with colored stones and other ornaments. 36 OF THE CHAIR XVIII. ITALY THE EVOLUTION Figure XIX is pure Louis the Thirteenth in style, and is especially noted because it was at this time that flowers began to be wrought upon silks and velvets and used upon furniture. The nobles used to send their chairs wherever they wished to go, and had special carriages to carry them in, with special cases lined with padding, like a jewel box. 38 OF THE CHAIR XIX. FRANCE— Louis XIII A. H. ANDREWS & CO.. CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION Until 1580 nearly all the chairs in France had arms, but at this time the mode of dressing changed. The ladies began to wear immense hoops, and since they could not sit down with them on, the chair arms must go. These chairs were given a name from the farthingale that made the trouble, " Vertugadin." See Figure XX, a sketch only. The king's chair was usually con- sidered sacred. It was Henry the Third of France, whose guard had orders to kill any person who touched his throne. A law of eti- quette at this period gave the high- est-backed chair to the person of highest rank, and the next highest to the person whose rank was next below, and so on down in order. In the seventeenth century the big wigs came into fashion, how- XX. FRANCE— "Vertugadin' THE EVOLUTION ever, and a great conflict arose between them and the taU chair backs. The tall backs were con- quered and soon disappeared. The chair shown in Figure XXI has a curious name, ^' Caquetoire." It refers to rapid talking, and in English would be a " cackle chair." It was a great favorite, and got its name from the women's using it for special gossiping. Silk, velvet, and brocade were used to decorate it, and its sumptuous coverings were the pride of the women. These chairs were always light compared with others, and easy to move. In the seventeenth century came the cane chairs. The cane was imported from India, and some of the designs wrought with these OF THE CHAIR XXI. FRANCE— i6th Century A. H. ANDREWS & CO.. CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION strips of rattan were very intricate. See Fig. XXII. They came during the reign of Louis XIV in France. Louis lavished the money his great minister collected for him on every kind of art work. He imported artists from all countries, and the art of his kingdom developed at a wonderfully rapid rate. The chair shown in this figure is not as elaborately carved as many, but is typical of the period. Chairs of a later date showed the beginning of" that rococo style that marked the reign of Louis XV in so prominent a manner. The rococo was everywhere, in Germany, especially, and was the almost ex- clusive style of interior decoration toward the later years of the eight- eenth century. The modeler's art had never been allowed such scope and freedom, and some of the work OF THE CHAIR ■_.i; XXII. FRANCE— Cane Chair A. H. ANDREWS & CO.. CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION of this period will never be excelled in exuberant richness. Figure XXIII. This chair is up- holstered with the rich, brocart, a cloth embroidered with gold and silver threads, rich and sumptuous. To give an idea of the value of the cloth: In 1665 the King of France ordered 195 ells, nearly 195 yards, and paid for it about $29,000 of our money. It could not be made at that time in France; but the king's minister sent men to Italy to learn the art, and upon their return factories wie;re started in France. IRapolCOU I attempted to repro- duce the old Roman dignity and splendor, and the style known as ''the Empire" became the only fashion. It was sometimes very se- vere and classic, yet usually with the richness and variety that the 46 OF THE CHAIR XXIII. FRANCE— Louis XVI A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION Renaissance designers of the later Italian work had bequeathed to it. Figure XXIV is a good example of the more modest kind, but it is also very typical of the style, with the back and the classic moldings of its Roman prototype ^^ It was used as a throne chair, and has the initial in gold. This initial was always encircled by a wreath of laurel leaves, and was in the old Roman character. The arms of the chair were often carved into lions' heads, the front leg of the chair being the fore leg of the lion. The surfaces were always highly pol- ished, and the decorations were in gold. The upholstered seat was brocaded in a gold-embossed velvet, the richest to be procured. Chairs of a similar character are to be found in the throne-rooms of many of the palaces of Kurope. 4S OF THE CHAIR mj=^ XXIV. FRANCE— Empire A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION But throne-making is not now a generally remunerative occupation. Seats for the many, rather than costly ones for the few, claim the skill of the chair-maker. The HnbreWB Metal Chair, for indoor use, is an evolution in the direction of real beauty and use- fulness. A very graceful form of this chair is shown in Figure XXV, the Andrews No. 6. The plating is in all the approved metals, and the upholsteries are of all desirable materials. The Andrews house is unrivaled in its facilities for this kind of man- ufacture. OF THE CHAIR XXV. METAL— 6 A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION The simplest of these metal chairs is the HnbreWS No. I, with its enameled frame and veneer seat — plain, but airy and tasteful. It is shown in our Figure XXVI. OF THE CHAIR XXVI. METAL— 1, 2, 3 A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION The evolution of the modern busi- ness chair from the hard stools and benches of the middle ages is worth considering. The business chairs of the HU^tCWS manufacture are noted for their ease, substantial- ness, and chaste elegance. Figure XXVII is their No. 6 R, a chair of moderate price, but seldom equaled in practical value. The varieties of arm and other business chairs found at this house are almost uncounted. OF THE CHAIR XXVII. OFFICE— 6 R A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION In the Coliseum of Rome the com- fort of those who witnessed the glad- iatorial fights and battles of trained animals seems to have been disre- garded in a marked degree, for the only seats were the stone terraces. But in our theaters the greatest pains is taken to provide all the ease and comfort that the most ex- acting can ask, and a comparison of our own with the olden day is highly complimentary to our age. ®ur tbeater^lovet expects his chair to be the acme of ease and convenience. Shapely back and arms, a lifting seat easy in use, and compactness are its characteristics; and it must be elegant also. Figure XXVIII is a very popular chair for this purpose. It is the No. 77of A.H. Andrews & Co., Chicago. This chair is in many of the best audience rooms of the country. 56 OF THE CHAIR XXVIII. OPERA-77 A. H. ANDREWS & CO , CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION Figure XXIX shows a less costly HnbreVVS chair, for theater or hall, numbered 62, with all the con- veniences of the richer ones. OF THE CHAIR 3 XXIX. OPERA— 62 A. H. ANDRKWS & CO.. CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION Figure XXX, the "Auditori- um," is named from the great Chi- cago Auditorium, in which are 5,000 of these chairs from the factory of A. H Andrews & Co. npR' 60 OF THE CHAIR XXX. AUDITORIUM A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO THE EVOLUTION Among the new luxuries is the easy chair in full leather. Figure XXXI shows one of these. It is in place in the inner office of the business and professional man, and, in his home, he finds it capacious enough for himself and his clan of " blue-eyed banditti." iLUTION: OF THE CHAIR XXXI. LEATHER— 3 A. H. ANDREWS & CO., CHICAGO ThQ JlndPGws ...are... Dtarable Beaiatiftil ^. H. ANDREWS &- CO. MANUFACTURERS 215 Wabash Aa CHICAGO >y ? APR :!3.-4 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS