Characteristic features of Antique Seating Furniture
The Sitting Place® is an online antique store that offers for sale items of quality antique seating furniture dating mostly from the 19th century up to the early 20th century. A concise summary of the characteristic features of antique seating furniture spanning this timeline is provided here.
Antique seating comes in all forms of shapes and sizes - from single chairs to larger seating arrangements, such as settees and sofas forming part of salon suites. Indeed, the most varied antique seating furniture, based upon numerous period-influenced designs and revivals, was produced during the 19th century.
The type of seating furniture was ultimately also determined by the different intended uses and room settings within the household. This ranged from the formal setting, such as a Georgian wing-back armchair in a drawing room, to the informal setting, such as a ladder-back chair or Windsor chair in a country/provincial kitchen.
Chairs intended to fulfil a specialised function in the household were also made, such as hall chairs, corner chairs, prayer chairs, folding chairs, reclining chairs and nursing/slipper chairs.
The intended use determined the longevity and functionality of the design of antique seating furniture as well as the desired level of comfort in the chosen upholstery.
Earlier forms of upholstery consisted of using all types of padding and materials that would have been readily available at the time (e.g. hide, straw and wool) - and stuffed into cushions and mattresses ("moveable" type). Practices eventually evolved to "fixed upholstery". In this case the upholstery was actually fixed to the wooden frames. Upholstery was still initially simple with the padding fixed tightly around frames. As time progressed though, deeper padding and more complex upholstery, consisting of multi-layers of hand-stitched stuffing, was applied in particular when augmented by coil-sprung foundations. This happened when the coil spring was introduced in the 1820s. More information on traditional upholstery can be found here.
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