One of the basic pieces of furniture, a chair is a type of seat.

Its primary features are two pieces of a

durable material, attached as back and seat to one another at a 90° or slightly greater angle, with
usually the four corners of the horizontal seat attached in turn to four legs—or other parts of the
seat's underside attached to three legs or to a shaft about which a four-arm turnstile on rollers can
turn—strong enough to support the weight of a person who sits on the seat (usually wide and broad
enough to hold the lower body from the buttocks almost to the knees) and leans against the vertical
back (usually high and wide enough to support the back to the shoulder blades). The legs are
typically high enough for the seated person's thighs and knees to form a 90° or lesser angle. [1][2] Used
in a number of rooms in homes (e.g. in living rooms, dining rooms, and dens), in schools and offices
(with desks), and in various other workplaces, chairs may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic
materials, and either the seat alone or the entire chair may be padded or upholstered in various
colors and fabrics.
Chairs vary in design. An armchair has armrests fixed to the seat;[3] a recliner is upholstered and
under its seat is a mechanism that allows one to lower the chair's back and raise into place a fold-out
footrest;[4] a rocking chair has legs fixed to two long curved slats; a wheelchair has wheels fixed to an
axis under the seat.[5]

Contents

 1Etymology
 2History
 3Materials
 4Design and ergonomics
o 4.1Armrests
 5Seats
 6Standards and specifications
 7Accessories
 8As sculptural and art forms
 9In language
 10See also
 11References
 12Further reading

Etymology
Chair comes from the early 13th-century English word chaere, from Old French chaiere ("chair, seat,
throne"), from Latin cathedra ("seat").[6]

History
Main article: History of the chair
Five three-legged chairs around a low-legged table from Sliven 19th Century Lifestyle Museum

Early 20th-century armchair made in eastern Australia, with strong heraldic embellishment

The chair has been used since antiquity, although for many centuries it was a symbolic article of
state and dignity rather than an article for ordinary use. "The chair" is still used as the emblem of
authority in the House of Commons in the United Kingdom[7] and Canada,[8] and in many other
settings. In keeping with this historical connotation of the "chair" as the symbol of authority,
committees, boards of directors, and academic departments all have a 'chairman' or 'chair'.
[9]
 Endowed professorships are referred to as chairs.[10] It was not until the 16th century that chairs
became common.[11] Until then, people sat on chests, benches, and stools, which were the ordinary
seats of everyday life. The number of chairs which have survived from an earlier date is exceedingly
limited; most examples are of ecclesiastical, seigneurial or feudal origin.[citation needed]
Chairs were in existence since at least the Early Dynastic Period of Egypt (c. 3100 BC). They were
covered with cloth or leather, were made of carved wood, and were much lower than today's chairs –
chair seats were sometimes only 10 inches (25 cm) high.[12] In ancient Egypt chairs appear to have
been of great richness and splendor. Fashioned of ebony and ivory, or of carved and gilded wood,
they were covered with costly materials, magnificent patterns and supported upon representations of
the legs of beasts or the figures of captives. Generally speaking, the higher ranked an individual
was, the taller and more sumptuous was the chair he sat on and the greater the honor. On state
occasions the pharaoh sat on a throne, often with a little footstool in front of it.[13]
The average Egyptian family seldom had chairs, and if they did, it was usually only the master of the
household who sat on a chair. Among the better off, the chairs might be painted to look like the
ornate inlaid and carved chairs of the rich, but the craftsmanship was usually poor. [12]

The Monobloc chair is a lightweight stackable polypropylene chair, usually white in colour, often described as

the world's most common plastic chair.[14]

The earliest images of chairs in China are from sixth-century Buddhist murals and stele, but the
practice of sitting in chairs at that time was rare. It wasn't until the twelfth century that chairs became
widespread in China. Scholars disagree on the reasons for the adoption of the chair. The most
common theories are that the chair was an outgrowth of indigenous Chinese furniture, that it evolved
from a camp stool imported from Central Asia, that it was introduced to China by Christian
missionaries in the seventh century, and that the chair came to China from India as a form of
Buddhist monastic furniture. In modern China, unlike Korea or Japan, it is no longer common to sit at
floor level.[15]
In Europe, it was owing in great measure to the Renaissance that the chair ceased to be a privilege
of state and became a standard item of furniture for anyone who could afford to buy it. Once the idea
of privilege faded the chair speedily came into general use. Almost at once the chair began to
change every few years to reflect the fashions of the day.[16]
In the 1880s, chairs became more common in American households and usually there was a chair
provided for every family member to sit down to dinner. By the 1830s, factory-manufactured “fancy
chairs” like those by Sears. Roebuck, and Co. allowed families to purchase machined sets. With the
Industrial Revolution, chairs became much more available. [17]
The Sacco chair, designed in 1968, is now the basis of bean bag chairs

The 20th century saw an increasing use of technology in chair construction with such things as all-
metal folding chairs, metal-legged chairs, the Slumber Chair,[citation needed] moulded plastic chairs and
ergonomic chairs.[18] The recliner became a popular form, at least in part due to radio and television.
The modern movement of the 1960s produced new forms of chairs: the butterfly chair (originally
called the Hardoy chair), bean bags, and the egg-shaped pod chair that turns. It also introduced the
first mass-produced plastic chairs such as the Bofinger chair in 1966. [19] Technological advances led
to molded plywood and wood laminate chairs, as well as chairs made of leather or polymers.
Mechanical technology incorporated into the chair enabled adjustable chairs, especially
for office use. Motors embedded in the chair resulted in massage chairs.[20]

Materials

Metal chairs in the Tuileries Garden, Paris, France

Chairs can be made from wood, metal, or other strong materials, like stone or acrylic. In some
cases, multiple materials are used to construct a chair; for example, the legs and frame may be
made from metal and the seat and back may be made from plastic. Chairs may have hard surfaces
of wood, metal, plastic, or other materials, or some or all of these hard surfaces may be covered with
upholstery or padding. The design may be made of porous materials, or be drilled with holes for
decoration; a low back or gaps can provide ventilation. The back may extend above the height of the
occupant's head, which can optionally contain a headrest. Chairs can also be made from more
creative materials, such as recycled materials like cutlery and wooden play bricks, pencils, plumbing
tubes, rope, corrugated cardboard, and PVC pipe.[21]
In rare cases, chairs are made out of unusual materials, especially as a form of art or
experimentation. Raimonds Cirulis, a Latvian interior designer, created a volcanic hanging chair that
is a handmade out of volcanic rock.[22][23] Peter Brenner, a Dutch-born German designer, has created
a chair made from lollipop sugar – 60 pounds (27 kg) of confectioners' sugar.[24]