If you were to ask my friends what I like, collecting French chairs would probably come up at some point. It's a problem, but there are definitely worse things.
Philippe de Rigaud's 1726 inventory mentions 121 examples of seating furniture at the château Saint-Louis, ranging from humble rush seat chairs to upholstered stools, armchairs, and even a sedan chair. I haven't gotten that bad yet, but the sheer number of seats is pretty astounding and points to the multipurpose, often public nature of rooms and furniture in the eighteenth century.
Most of the chairs inventoried appear to have existed in sets (for example, 8 French walnut chairs upholstered in tapestry), suggesting their use in a public or social context. The inventory mentions some chairs that, by their nature, would have been used in a more private space, perhaps a smaller side chamber or cabinet. These are two chaises de commodité, a term used to describe generously upholstered chairs or ones featuring an actual mechanism allowing the back to raise and lower. Like a La-Z-Boy recliner chair, these were made for comfort. Deriving from earlier sleeping or sick chairs designed for invalids, mechanical chairs became popular at the turn of the eighteenth century.
Although born in the century that saw the rise of Louis XIV and the aristocratic ritualization of activities now thought of as private or mundane (dressing, eating, etc.), Philippe de Rigaud survived to witness important social transformations that valued intimacy and comfort. The chaise de commodité encapsulates the quest for comfort and innovation in French furniture design at the turn of the eighteenth century. Dying at the age of eighty-two in 1725, I can easily imagine him seeking comfort and convenience sitting- or reclining- in such a chair.
Philippe de Rigaud's 1726 inventory mentions 121 examples of seating furniture at the château Saint-Louis, ranging from humble rush seat chairs to upholstered stools, armchairs, and even a sedan chair. I haven't gotten that bad yet, but the sheer number of seats is pretty astounding and points to the multipurpose, often public nature of rooms and furniture in the eighteenth century.
Most of the chairs inventoried appear to have existed in sets (for example, 8 French walnut chairs upholstered in tapestry), suggesting their use in a public or social context. The inventory mentions some chairs that, by their nature, would have been used in a more private space, perhaps a smaller side chamber or cabinet. These are two chaises de commodité, a term used to describe generously upholstered chairs or ones featuring an actual mechanism allowing the back to raise and lower. Like a La-Z-Boy recliner chair, these were made for comfort. Deriving from earlier sleeping or sick chairs designed for invalids, mechanical chairs became popular at the turn of the eighteenth century.
Although born in the century that saw the rise of Louis XIV and the aristocratic ritualization of activities now thought of as private or mundane (dressing, eating, etc.), Philippe de Rigaud survived to witness important social transformations that valued intimacy and comfort. The chaise de commodité encapsulates the quest for comfort and innovation in French furniture design at the turn of the eighteenth century. Dying at the age of eighty-two in 1725, I can easily imagine him seeking comfort and convenience sitting- or reclining- in such a chair.