on chairs

on the subject of furniture i am admittedly no expert, but i've had the great fortune of being tutored by some experts in the field. before that i didn’t really consider furniture. i mean, i knew what i liked, and realized as with all other objects there was a history and a style, but i spent no time learning these things. it just was. i suppose that’s the way it is with all objects until something or someone makes it more personal. i know there are a great many people who own and drive cars and have little interest in their attributes beyond taking them from a to b. this is a great shock and outrage to automobile enthusiasts who froth and gnash at the opportunity to explain every unique detail and difference not only between comparative car models but even in the same model from one year to the next. and so it is with furniture. if you’ve ever sat down and watched antiques roadshow on pbs, you’ve probably appreciated the sensibility that comes with understanding that a federalist period end table is worth far more than a french provincial dining table reproduction at your local garage sale. now in the realm of furniture obviously everyone has a different taste in what they like, not only in style and design, but also in a particular piece over another. some people fancy tables, others like dressers or cabinetry. if you’ve ever visited someone’s house for the first time, chances are you’ve been formally introduced. “...and this is our china hutch. 19th century Irish oak. isn’t she a beauty?” now me, i like chairs. when i first began learning the history of modern furniture, it was chairs that attracted me. first in seeing through the world of the eames’ and tracing their influence in my own life. as a kid i had no doubt sat on eames chairs in school, restaurants, libraries and airports without notice. only later as an adult going back over these designs and realizing their democratizing influence did i truly begin to appreciate the role of chairs.
if we spend roughly a third of our lives in a bed, many of us certainly spend another equal third in a chair. even if we don’t work at a desk job, we’re driving to one in a chair, and when many of us get home the first place we head for is our favorite one. and men get a reputation of never getting out of one on sundays during football season. now as a collector i’m no great threat. i’ve never spent more than a night at the movies for one, but somehow they seem to find adoption. right now we have an old sectional piece found at an estate sale for less than $10 waiting to be re-covered. we’ve got a couple eames fiberglass shell chairs that I love. in our living room is one that looks like an early 1960’s finn juhl knock off that i saved from destruction at my old job. and just the other day my wife pulled a little wooden flared back dining room chair (which I am now sitting on) from the clutches of the dumpster. she likes chairs too, and they seem to find their way into our home like stray cats to a lady who keeps leaving a bowl of milk on the front porch. in the dining room we have some red vinyl diner chairs and a pair of those metal navy office chairs so popular a few years ago. outside our front door are some crate and barrel repro motel chairs that are developing fine patina alongside an italian fiberglass tub chair that i somehow acquired from an old friend when he moved.
i read somewhere that in some of the old art and design schools a party would often be held where each of the guests was encouraged to bring a chair of his or her design. i like this idea, not because i think i could put together something that would actually be comfortable and hold me for an entire night, but I do like the idea of expressing your sensibility through a chair. tables and sofas are communal, but a chair is personal. It sits alone and waits for someone to form a relationship with it. “hey, yeah you. what do you say? you want to try me out for a little while?” and a chair has personality too. i’d love to assemble a party where rooms were filled with nothing but chairs. big and small, plush and firm, regal and stately and primitive and spare. and see who ends up where and then try and figure out why. a great exercise for psychologists and students of social behavior. i guess each of us just wants to feel like a king sometimes. and this must be why over the years i’ve ended up collecting so many old thrones.