Corner chair

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Corner chair (ca. 1740)

A corner chair is a chair design with a four-corner seat arranged in a way that one corner, sometimes rounded, frequently with a cabriole leg, is positioned in front while the rounded or angled backrest is aligned with the two back sides of the seat.[1]

Quite popular in the 17th and 18th centuries, the corner chairs are currently mostly of interest as antique furniture pieces (a 1931 article describes the arrangement as "unusual"),[1] although similar designs with the high angled back are used as medical assistance devices to maintain the upper trunk position (for example, in cases of cerebral palsy).[2]

History and terminology

Burgomaster's chair (ca. 1750)

The origin of the corner chair can be traced to six- or eight-leg chairs of Chinese palaces with

burgs).[4] Initially the chairs retained the round shape of the Chinese prototypes[5] (thus one more name, roundabout chairs, which in American English became a synonym of the corner chair,[6] yet sometimes is still used to describe the older six- or eight- legged design with a round seat).[7]

The corner chair got its name recently[8][when?] and was contemporarily known under a variety of names.[9] Gloag[8] states that the "roundabout" term was not contemporary, and the "burgomaster" name also appears to be modern. However, the term "round about chair" and many other, less popular, ones ("round chair", "three-cornered chair", "triangle chair", "half round chair") can be seen in the New England inventories as early as 1738.[9]

By the time of

Colonial America (late 17th century); these chairs were mostly used as desk furniture, though they occasionally included heavy skirt (valance) so they can be used as a commode chair.[10][11]

Drepperd

Hogarth chairs might also resemble the corner chairs, but, strictly speaking, cannot be classified as such.[13]

References

  1. ^ a b Hjorth 1931, p. 106.
  2. OCLC 1166828904
    .
  3. ^ Drepperd 1948, p. 93.
  4. ^ Drepperd 1948, p. 228.
  5. ^ a b Drepperd 1948, p. 245.
  6. ^ a b Pynt & Higgs 2010, p. 108.
  7. ^ Boyce 2014.
  8. ^ a b Gloag 2013.
  9. ^ a b Lyon 1891, p. 168.
  10. ^ Bishop 1972, p. 110.
  11. ^ Drepperd 1948, p. 97.
  12. ^ Drepperd 1948, pp. 93–98.
  13. ^ Drepperd 1948, p. 98.

Sources

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