Stool (seat)

A stool is a raised seat commonly supported by three or four legs, but with neither armrests nor a backrest (in early stools), and typically built to accommodate one occupant. As some of the earliest forms of seat, stools are sometimes called backless chairs despite how some modern stools have backrests. Folding stools can be collapsed into a flat, compact form typically by rotating the seat in parallel with fold-up legs.

History

The origins of stools are obscure, but they are known to be one of the earliest forms of wooden furniture.^[1] The diphros was a four-leg stool in Ancient Greece, available in both fixed and folding versions. Percy Macquoid claims that the turned stool was introduced from Byzantium by the Varangian Guard, and thus through Norse culture into Europe, reaching England via the Normans.^[1][2]

In the

technique of setting already-dried legs into a still-green seat. As the seat dries and shrinks, the joints are held tight. These legs were originally formed by shaving down from a simple branch or pole, later examples developed turned shapes.

Artefacts of the three-legged stools are extant from the 17th century^[where?], as is an illustration of an early turned stool of this period.^[4] One of the uses for three-legged stools is for farm workers in milking cows.

Later developments in the 17th century produced the joined stool, using the developing techniques of

Royal stools

Several kingdoms and chiefdoms in

.

Backstools

The backstool represents an intermediate step between the development of the stool and the chair. A simple three-legged turned stool would have its rear leg extended outwards and a crossways pad attached.[6] Backstools were always three-legged, with a central rear leg.

Turned backstools led in turn to the development of the three-legged turned chair, where the backrest was widened and supported by diagonal spindles leading down to extensions of the front legs. In time these diagonal supports became larger, higher and more level, leading to the turned armchair design.^[6]

Modern backstools

In modern times, the term "stool" has become blurred, and many types now have backs.

These are particularly common among bar stools, tall stools for seating at a counter, often fixed in place. These are a development of the chair as much as the stool, made more compact to allow dense seating around a serving table or counter. They may even be referred to as "backless chairs". One type of stool, Windsor-back stools, which "are popular in traditional homes", has a back.^[7]

Such backstools developed from around 1900, with the advent of modern materials such as

materials no longer depended on the shapes of traditional joinery, as developed for earlier stools, and so strong backs could be attached arbitrarily, without relying on particular leg placements for strength.

Variations

• folding step stool
• kick stool or kick step stool

Gallery

• 
  Handmade Stool from Nepal
• 
  Early modern stool made of wood
• 
  Table and stools from Bulgaria
• 
  Milking stool

See also

• Faldstool
• Footstool
• Taboret
• Seat

References

External links

• Shakespeare in 100 Objects: Joint-stool
• West Dean College: Seventeenth Century Joinery: From Log to Stool