The Egyptian chair is a refinement of a chair excavated from the Tutankhamen (1341 B.C. ~ C.1323 B.C.) mausoleum more than 3,000 years ago, based on the Louvre. This is also the earliest chair with an image record.
Today's mainstream view is that the chair originated from ancient Egypt, and that folding benches (i.e., beard beds) and high-legged tables appeared during the ancient Egyptian kings (4600 years ago), and chairs appeared during the new kings of ancient Egypt (about 3000 years ago).
In China, according to the literature, the name "chair" first appeared in the Tang Dynasty, and it has always been called "Hu Bed". This is also the Western Han Dynasty Zhang Qian sent an envoy to the Western Regions, bringing the Hu bed to the Western Han Dynasty Northern Expedition a small number of nomadic peoples (Hu), and then the Han Ling Emperor promoted the Hufu and Hu beds. Of course, there is also a saying that in the ancient Shu kingdom four or five thousand years ago, the ancestors used stools and chairs, which is proved by the Three Star Pile jade collected by the Sichuan folk.
The development of the chair has run through the history of mankind. In the field of design, the chair is also an important topic for many masters to play creatively. Those well-known designers all have more or less chairs of their own style.
Not only is it a practical furniture, but the chair is also the embodiment of art and spiritual culture.
100 Classic Chairs That Influenced the World in the Mid-Twentieth Century (II)
Lounge Chair No. 011 (Lounge Chair 43)
Designed by Alvar Aalto Designed in 1937, 1947
In the 1930s, with the advent of the "Jazz Age", recliners designed for reading became popular. Aalto wanted to launch his own lounge chair, but Marcel Brauer had already taken the lead in designing a bench for Isocon. In order to meet the need for more comfortable recliners than Palmio chairs, Aalto made his early 43-gauge recliner plus mat version for the Paris Expo, which he also processed a year earlier, covering the chair with a "cloud" fabric made by Marita Lybeck. Chair #43 combines the high comfort of a traditional recliner with Aalto's own superb wood-bending skills, and although it sells mediocrely, it attracts many people who once ignored his pure wooden works.
In 1947, a leather cross-braided version of the Aalto-designed laminated beech wood cantilever chaise longue was introduced. As you can see, it even looks a little unstable from the side, but it is indeed quite elegant, visually lighter than the unadorned version of pure plywood. In the same year, Artec introduced another version of cloth weaving. It should be noted that there is a balance beam behind the two legs, which looks a bit like a child's balance toy, as if it is about to roll to the front at any moment. This elegant detail hides a screw fixture inserted into the balance beam from the lower part of the leg to prevent the leg from bending.
No. 012 Butterfly Chair, 198
Designed by Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy, Juan Kurchan and Antonio Bonet Designed in 1938
The butterfly chair, also known as BKF, the Hardoy chair, the Safari chair, and the Sling and the Wing, was originally designed for the offices of three Argentine architects. George W. Ferrari-Hadoi, Juan Kuchan and Antonio Pogne all worked for Le Corbusier on major projects in Buigeros Aires and later co-founded the Grupo Austral. They assembled prototypes of the first chairs into models, which they then handed over to Atec Pasco for production, while the copyright fee was sent to Argentina.
In 1940, when MoMA's design curator, Edgar Kaufman Jr., saw the chair for the first time at the Third Salon de Aritistas Decoradores in Buenos Aires, he had a premonition that people on the West Coast of the United States would immediately line up to frantically buy this lightweight chair with natural tan leather. Families at the time were looking for cheap and effective furniture, and the butterfly chair created a new aesthetic trend with its hammock-like leather surface and zigzag metal base. In the 1950s alone, a variety of manufacturers built more than five million butterfly chairs. Today, that number has become hundreds of millions, and every manufacturer, from Walmart to IKEA, has more or less launched its own brand of "butterfly chair". The original butterfly chair is well worth collecting.
No. 013 Landi Chair
Designed by Hans Coray Designed in 1938
If you ask any student who is just beginning to study design, they are unlikely to date the birth of such a modern-looking chair back to the 1930s. The lightweight Randy chair was born during World War II, when designers were looking for inspiration from the aviation industry. Because wood was converted to military use, aluminum could withstand the test of flames and rain, and the Hydropower Station in Ruitu was able to supply a stable power supply to produce aluminum, aluminum became one of Switzerland's most important export materials.
In Zurich's squares and gardens, there are 1,500 such aluminum chairs, known as the "Swiss Metal Chairs". Since then, wave after wave of manufacturers have written down this Randy chair in the history of the classic chair with record high production and endless imitations. Collectors should notice that the Randy chair produced before 1962 has a total of 91 holes; The version produced after 1962, as shown, became 60 holes. Corey's designs continue to inspire designers to try to punch holes in metal, but none of their work can surpass the modernity of Randy's essence. Today, Vitra has recreated the 91-hole chair originally designed by Curray, and it still looks as new as it was on its first day.
No.014 Sunbed
Designed by Aino Aalto Designed in 1939
Architect and designer Reno Aalto is by no means just Alvar Aalto's wife. In her native Finland, she is revered as a pioneer in "Finnish design". Aino assisted Alva in designing the lighting and furniture section of the Pamio Tuberculosis Sanatorium, but her work in Villa Mairea is better known. It's a private villa in Noormarkku, Finland, owned by Artec's co-founder Maria and her husband, Hary Gullichsen, both of whom are art enthusiasts. Mary came from a hard-working family, they ran a logging factory and shipping industry, they had a successful career, they were rich, but they rarely had time to enjoy life. So the sundeck has become an indispensable part of the yard, which can make people feel "far away from the city and living alone" between people.
The owner gave Aino considerable freedom to decorate the house, so she created a modernist hybrid style with Alvar furniture and her own custom furniture for the house. The sundeck was originally hewn from a coniferous tree, and those strips, wheels and armrests allowed you to push it around like a trolley. Both Maria and Aynor loved to spend time on the white sun loungers in the garden.
No.015 Tokyo Chaise Longue, 522
Designed by Charlotte Perriand Designed in 1940
Charlotte Berian's application to work for Le Corbusier has long been a good story in the field of modern design, and Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jean Lète developed a series of furniture products in collaboration with the leading artists and designers of the time, of which Berrian was an indispensable member. But the real success came after she was appointed industrial design consultant to Japan's Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Japanese people are used to sitting on tatami mats instead of chairs, and she wants to show the Japanese people that every aspect of a Japanese family can use furniture that can be exported internationally.
The Tokyo recliner was born in Japan, and this piece is a reinterpretation of the LC4 chair. In 1928, Berrian co-created the famous LC4 chair made of steel pipe and leather with Corbusier and Pierre Jeanlet. In Japan, she learned new techniques from her outstanding craftsmen, including lacquering and basket weaving. She was amazed at how the Japanese bent bamboo with water or heat, and marveled at the many ways they used rice stalks and rice paper. Before she went to Tokyo, she had already made a recliner frame out of wood and a seat part of the seat with the strap leather fixed at both ends, and then she introduced 12 strips of pressed bamboo into the design, and the curve of the edges added strength to the chair body. During World War II, Japan allied with Germany and Berian was forced to open Japan. An "unpopular foreigner," she was forced into a further four-year exile in Vietnam after encountering a sea blockade, during which time she completed many works, including the Ombra Tokyo Chair, which developed from a piece of pressed curved plywood, and perfected the Tokyo recliner.
No·016 鹈鹕椅（Pelican Chair）
Designed by Finn Juhl Designed in 1940
If we think about it, it was nearly two decades after Finn Yul designed this ingenious upholstered chair that designers like Pierre Polling and Olivier Mour-gue emerged, and we can probably understand how weird the Danes would have found the chair when it first appeared in 1940. Along with this chair, there was the pelican Table, which was also unusual, with its thick short legs. Upholsterers shouldn't have exposed their legs, they always have larger cushions, thicker cushions, and are usually thick and elastic. The Pelican chair was unusual, with only a thin cushion and a perfect pine frame made by Nils Wardell based on simple drawings drawn by Yule.
The Pelican chair paved the way for the style of the 1950s, bringing the wind of ornamentation back to the world of design. Six years later, with the Womb Chair, Little Sarin became a fashionmaker in the decorative furniture world. The Pelican Chair proved to be a comfortable and outstanding design piece with cross-era significance. It was re-released in 2001 and is still in production a version of the steel frame and foam housing.
No. 017 Poet Sofa, 705/FJ41
Designed by Finn Juhl Designed in 1941
The poet Sofa was one of the first works Yule created for Kratvanget, where Yule lived from 1941 until his death in 1989. Writer Yugan created a series of comics published in the newspaper Politiken, and the image of the sofa also appeared in the comics, so it was later named the "Poet's Sofa". At this stage, Jurshan's furniture works embarked on the path of radical simplification, but the simple appearance of the poet's sofa was still too avant-garde for those who had become accustomed to a more classic and meticulous style.
No one had seen such sofa legs before—like the legs of a Pelican chair, they looked more like broom handles, and the surface looked like they had been only oiled and not painted. The couch is bulging, but looks like there's not much elasticity. Today, Hans Henrik Sφrensen, a founding partner at Onecollection, the maker of the Jure chair, says, "Now we put independent springs in the cushions, but I think there were neither springs nor latex in the original cushions." Yur's outer fabric is hand-woven by weaver Dorris Nielsen.
No. 018 Risom Lounge Chair, 654W (Risom Lounge Chair, 654W)
Designed by Jens Risom Designed in 1943
In 1961, there was a memorable group photo on the playboy magazine's insert, which included Charles Ems, Sharin Jr., George Nelson, Edward Warmley and Harry Bertoa, and Jens Lisom also won a place in the luxurious lineup. He changed the face of the furniture. Through the works, a new modern America is reflected. He was in the United States in the 1930s, but it wasn't until 1941, when he met Hans Knoll, the son of a high-end German furniture maker, that he was able to turn his dream into reality.
In design, Risom returned the chair to the most basic frame structure, making the frame of the chair from cedar scraps and bringing the outer layer of the woven chair with an abandoned parachute from the Air Force. Knoll, on the other hand, found several small factories that did not have to participate in arms production. The key to the success of the 654W is that it is both convenient and lightweight. Together, the duo have discovered new ways to make the production and assembly of removable parts of the chair easier and more economical. The curve of the chair appears to be made of curved wood heated by steam, but in fact it is achieved by the splicing of multiple pieces of cut material through a mortise and tenon structure. After World War II, cedar was replaced with laminated beech wood, and the material for weaving the seat and back was replaced with a better textured fabric or leather.
No.019 Grass-seated Chair
Designed by George Nakashima Designed in 1944
The grass chair, despite its almost rudimentary appearance and angular shape, is a simple and comfortable chair, and one of Nakajima's most popular and commercially successful works. The steam-treated curved wooden chair bends a gentle curve behind the armrest of the chair and can be considered a precursor to Hans Wagner's lap chair in the process. The chair has only six axes, four legs spread outwards, connected by simple horizontal gears, so that everyone can see through the chair at a glance. The heaviest part of the chair,
It is a walnut seat frame. Nakajima's wife, Marion, weaves the straps commonly used on the family's farm into a sitting
Mat, later this part of the material was replaced with seaweed.
He always explores the expression of each piece of wood, and in the larger works, he shows the original knots and textures of the trees as much as possible, and the grass seats witness how the couple gave the trees a new life by making a simple chair. Grass seats are still being produced, but the seaweed for woven seats has been replaced with Danish ropes that are stronger and more durable. If you find Nakajima's signature at the bottom of your seat, you can be sure that it's a genuine one from Nakajima's studio.
No. 020 Pernilla 3
Designed by Bruno Mathsson Designed in 1944
The work was named the Penilla Chair in honor of journalist Pernilla Tunberger. Under the pseudonym "Penella," she published numerous articles in Stockholm's Daily News. In 1943, when the Penilla chair was just taking shape, she interviewed Mason at his home. The two got along extraordinarily well, and Ma Song named the chair after her as a compliment, which has to be said to be a very rare honor.
Penilla 1 is a short-legged reclining version of the Eve chair. Penilla 2 has an ottoman. Penilla 3 combines the characteristics of the two, reminiscent of Marcel Brauer's Isoken bench. As a sports worker, Ma Song often sleeps outdoors in the summer and relaxes on the Peñera No. 3 leather woven recliner at home in the winter. He always laid his hands lazily on the curved laminated beech armrests, the solid birch base of the chair connected to the curved wooden legs, which gradually thinned downwards and stood firmly on the floor.
Referenced from Chair 100, by Lucy Ryder Richard, translated by Joasu
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