Hi basecan2
Up until the seventeenth century a chair was just a chair with a
wooden seat and back, unless it was a throne. Then furniture-makers
began adding arms and upholstery to make chairs more comfortable, as
well as lowering seats from "dining" height. People started using the
description "armchair".
In the eighteenth century there were highbacked padded chairs for the
rich or those in need of extra comfort:
http://www.metmuseum.org/collections/view1.asp?dep=1&full=0&item=50%2E228%2E3
Even when padded, they didn't have that "sink-into-it" comfort that
would come in the next century:
http://www.mallettantiques.com/featured_item/chippendale-chair-FR148.htm
It was the Victorians who invented the fully-sprung, fully-upholstered
easy chair and in this period the classic, deep-seated, well-padded,
low-backed club chair developed. The designers did not have the same
status as cabinet-makers and so their names have not been handed down,
although some manufacturers' names add to the value of a Victorian
chair.
The word "club" in club chair harks back to the gentlemen's clubs in
nineteenth century England where a gentleman could go to get away from
his household (including womenfolk). Once there, he would sink into a
well-upholstered leather chair and relax with a drink and perhaps a
cigar. The names of the fashionable London streets full of such clubs
are still used to name classic club chairs: St. James, Piccadilly and
so on.
Many Victorian leather club chairs were button-backed, companion
pieces to Chesterfield sofas (also a nineteenth century design).
http://www.victorian-taxidermy.co.uk/product.php?product=239
A dictionary definition of a club chair is "A heavily upholstered easy
chair with arms and a low back". Although any fabric can be used to
upholster them, leather, being the quintessential gentleman's
furnishing material, has been consistently popular.
In the twentieth century, the club chair developed in two different
directions. One possibility was a traditional "overstuffed" chair,
perhaps with a sofa as part of a matched suite, which could be covered
in cloth as well as leather.
http://crateandbarrel.com/itemgroups/17483_0.asp
(Overstuffed in a furniture context doesn't mean too stuffed, just
very well padded.)
By contrast, there were also streamlined modern designs, notably by
architect Mies van de Rohe.
Even more innovative was the other famous design from the 1920s: the
Bauhaus Wassily chair, named for artist Wassily Kandinsky.
Art deco club chairs became popular and are particularly associated
with France, although in the French tradition, these may be more
formal and less bouncy than chairs from Britain or the USA.
http://www.at-direct-from-france.com/autoeditablepage.php?article=105
In the 1950s the Eames chair was introduced as a fresh American
interpretation of the traditional English club chair.
Nowadays the traditional leather club chair is popular, with Pottery
Barn claiming their Manhattan club chair as the best selling club
chair in the US.
http://ww2.potterybarn.com/cat/index.cfm?cid=fur&sid=PBE109QLHICLQEKVBG0HZVYP8ENQGNMS200309160903&src=reg
But it's not all tradition. Innovation continues. Look at this Bubble
Club Chair, Philippe Starck's twenty-first century contribution to the
evolving design of club chairs:
http://www.brokenoff.com/this.html
================================
The origins of the easy chair
-----------------------------
"The soft, padded easy chair bespeaks a gradual historical trend away
from rigid, utilitarian styles and toward comfort in furnishings. Some
date this transformation back to 17th century Europe, during Louis
XIV's reign in France, when furniture-making took a turn toward
opulence."
http://www.belfioreandkagan.com/clients/bernhardt.html
17c - first armchairs - furniture timeline
http://www.maltwood.uvic.ca/hoft/text.html
"It's in 1636 that the word armchair was used for the first time to
name the "chaise à bras". With the rise of the middle-class, family
life develops. The chair with arms becomes "convenient for
conversation" and it can be moved.Thanks to its sober form and
decoration, it becomes more comfortable. The seat can be lowered and
upholstered with needlepoint, fabric or embossed leather."
http://www.tapisseriedefrance.com/001100.louis_xiii.us.htm
================================
The first club chairs
---------------------
"The upholsterer took the outline form or 'skeleton' of the wooden
chair and transformed it into a completely new form. Soft padded
edges, voluminous cushions and plush materials allowed the chair to
lose its previous shape. [...] the seat depth increases to allow a
'comfortable' sitting position, and padded arm rests invite a flailed
leg or weary elbow. Slumped, passive postures were invited by the
chair, with some of the chairs actually being called 'comfortables'.
[...] These chairs made use of spiral springs placed in the base.
Spring makers worked together with the upholsterer, to develop new
shapes and styles . . ." (see illustration)
http://www.exmoorantiques.co.uk/History%20of%20Seating.htm
"The club chair – extra-roomy with its deep seat, low back, and
slightly curved back and front – has resurfaced as a household
favorite. Classically (but not exclusively) covered in leather, the
chair's original club design dates back to the 19th century. The
popularity of the chair surged in the 1920s, when French Art Deco
designers created variations on the basic theme."
http://www.belfioreandkagan.com/clients/bernhardt.html
"an over stuffed 'club' chair which typically would have been made as
one piece of a parlor suite.
[...]
I checked the 1923 Sears Roebuck Catalog for furniture like the chair
which is illustrated. At the time a club chair with similar upholstery
was selling for $31.64 and the matching sofa sold for $63.85.
This style of over-stuffed furniture enjoyed popularity for several
decades beginning in the 1910's."
http://medina-ny.com/historical/SA_Cook.html
================================
Variations on the original club chair
-------------------------------------
French art deco club chairs
http://www.rubylane.com/ni/shops/directfromfrance/iteml/1624
http://www.at-direct-from-france.com/autoeditablepage.php?article=105
Art Deco club chairs
http://www.artdecocollection.com/seatingitemssold.htm
". . Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Based on Mies' original drawings of a
club chair, Knoll, Inc., in collaboration with The Museum of Modern
Art's Mies Archives, is producing a lounge chair, settee, sofa,
ottoman, 53"and 77" benches and square wood side table.
Originally intended for the Lange and Esters houses in Krefeld,
Germany in 1927, the chair was designed to complement the warm brick
exteriors of the residences."
http://www.knoll.com/news/hstory.jsp?story_id=2062
1920s
"Bauhaus member Marcel Breuer is said to have gotten the idea of using
bent steel tubing for this chair while admiring the handlebar of his
bicycle. This chair was originally named the Club Chair Model B3. It
became better known as the 'Wassily', named after his friend, the
artist and painter, Wassily Kandinski, who asked Breuer to design a
chair for him."
http://designmatcher.com/nl/gallery_detail.php?galleryID=70
1956
"Charles and Ray Eames conceived of this exceptionally comfortable
chair as the 20th-century American answer to the Edwardian English
Club Chair. The Lounge Chair stands out among their work for its
unapologetic luxury and the level of handcraft required in its
execution.
Charles Eames' aspirations for the chair were less lofty. He wanted it
to have "the warm receptive look of a well used first baseman's mitt."
http://www.arno.org/designclassics/
Traditional style
-----------------
"the husky "Manhattan" chair, which [Pottery Barn] claims has been the
best-selling leather club chair in the country."
http://homes.wsj.com/housegarden/furnishings/19990921-reilly.html
Traditionally styled club chairs are often given names that evoke
libraries, dens, men's studies or clubs, heritage, heirloom etc.
http://www.stephenperkins.co.uk/acatalog/Westminster_Club_Chair.html
http://www.state.ok.us/~osi/herclub.htm
http://www.thomaslloyd.com/products/winchester.htm
"traditional Edwardian style tufted club chair [...] named after Sir
Winston Churchill"
http://www.basillawrence.com/images/sophia1.jpg
19th century manufacturer: Howard & Sons
"Easy chair & sofa factory. Howard & Sons, upholsterers, 26 & 27,
Berners Street, London."
http://www.shareholder.com/bid/news/20000821-22151.cfm
BBC guide
http://www.bbc.co.uk/antiques/collectorsguide/furniture/upholstered_chairs_sofas.shtml
I hope this gives you all you need, but please don't hesitate to ask
if you would like me to clarify anything.
Best Wishes - Leli
Answer based on previous knowledge and searches with combinations of:
"club chair"
seating furniture
tradition design history origins
leather "gentleman's club"
"art deco" French
Mies Wassily Eames |
