CHAPTER VI
CHAIRS
CHAIRS are seldom mentioned in the earliest colonial inventories, and few were in use in either England or America at that time. Forms and stools were used for seats in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and inventories of that period, even those of wealthy men, do not often contain more than one or two chairs. The chair was the seat of honor given to the guest, others sitting upon forms and stools. This custom was followed by the American colonists, and forms or benches and joint or joined stools constituted the common seats during the first part of the seventeenth century.
Illus. 120.—Turned Chair,
Sixteenth Century.
The chairs in use during that period were “thrown” or turned chairs; wainscot chairs, sometimes described as “scrowled” or carved chairs; and later, chairs covered with leather, or “Turkey work,” and other fabrics.
The best-known turned chair in this country is the “President’s Chair” at Harvard University. Dr. Holmes has written of it in “Parson Turell’s Legacy”:—