In this next article in our series on the history of chairs we're going to look at chairs of the 18th century.
With the coming of the 18th century, chairs started to become more informal and started to replace the bolt upright look of the courts and the aristocracy that was common during the time of Louis XIV. Around 1720 the commodious seat was developed in Paris, France. The new Rocco chairs were comfortably upholstered on removable frames secured by clips so that changes to the chair could be made to accommodate both winter and summer temperature and humidity conditions. These early Louis XV chairs were upholstered a la reine, with the back in a flat panel that was placed squared to the wall. This way the top rails curves complimented those of the panels behind them.
French fashion in chairs came from Paris as did everything else of the times. From the late 1720s, Louis XV French chairs were made without stretchers because they interfered with the unified flow of curved seatrails into cabriole legs. These usually ended in scrolled feet. This style was strictly enforced until the revolution when they were made mostly by a menuisier in association with the person who made the upholstery who was the huissier. These people specialized in furniture making in Paris. Specialized seats were developed and given some pretty fancy names. The most popular of these was the bergere or "shepherdess". The woods used to make most of these chairs were walnut and beech. The finishes of the chairs were made in very light tones. The days of the dark finishes were coming to an end. In some cases, the chairs were left in their natural color and were unfinished. Most of the unfinished chairs were made from walnut because it looked better unfinished than beech. In some provinces fruitwoods became very popular for chair making. These were considered variations on the traditional French models. These variations were produced mostly by Bordeaux and Liege between 1725 and 1780.
In the late 1760s the first, what are called, neoclassical chairs were manufactured in Paris. These were made even before the ascension of Louis XVI whose name is actually associated with these models. The legs of these chairs were straight tapered fluted. They were joined by a block at the seat rail. They also had architectural moldings. The leading chair makers of this style during the 1770s and 1780s were Louis Delanois, Jean-Claude Sene and Georges Jacob.
The 18th century is considered the golden age of the chair. This was especially true in France and England where there were many different ideas for chair making going around. Diderot wrote extensively about these chairs in his encyclopaedia. One of the most famous chairs of the period was the Louis Seize chair which had an oval back and a very ample seat. It also had descending arms and round-reeded legs. It was upholstered in Beauvais and woven in Boucher or Watteau-like scenes.
In our next article in this series we'll pick up with chairs of the 19th century.
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Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Chairs
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