No. A811F (Prague) chair
Obama, Barack
Oeben, Jean-François
office chairs; see also desk chairs; task chairs
Oies de Frère Philippe, Les (La Fontaine)
Oklahoma, University of
Onion, The
ornament
ottomans
Owens-Corning
Oxford University, Sackler Library
Paimio furniture
Palatinate
Panton, Vernon
papasan chairs
Paragon Chair
Paris
Parthenon
Pascaud, Jean
Peacock Chair
Peacock Throne
Peale, Charles Willson
Pei, I. M.
Peking
Peninsular War
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, University of
Perriand, Charlotte
Persia
Philadelphia
Piano, Renzo
Pine, Robert Edge
Podmaniczky, Michael
Pollock, Charles: executive chair
Polyprop Chair
Pompadour, Madame de
Pop Art
Pope, Alexander
porch swings
Portugal
postmodernism
Postsparkasse (Vienna)
posture, see sitting posture
potato-chip chair
Poulsen, Louis
PP Møbler
Prague (No. A811F) chair
Pratt Institute
Prince-Ramus, Joshua
Principia Mathematica (Newton)
Prussia
Purkersdorf Sanatorium
Pye, David
Quakers
Rameau, Jean-Philippe
Rannie, James
Reading from Molière (Troy)
Récamier, Juliette
recliners
Red Blue Chair
Red Chair
Reich, Lilly: Barcelona Chair; Tugendhat Chair
Renaissance; scissors chair
Renoir, Pierre-Auguste
Revolutionary War
Reynolds, Joshua
Rhode Island School of Design
ribband-back chair
Rietveld, Gerrit; Red Blue Chair
Rittweger, Otto
Rock-A-Fella recliners
rocking chairs; innovative
rococo style
Roman Catholic Church
Romans; couches; curule
Roorkhee Chair
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, Theodore
Rowland, David; 40/4 stacking chair
Royal Copenhagen
Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts
Rudofsky, Bernard
rustic side chairs
Saarinen, Eero; Model 71; reading chair; Tulip Chair; Womb Chair
Saarinen, Eliel
Sacco beanbag chair
sack-back Windsor chairs
“saddle cheek” chairs, see wing chairs
Safari Chair
safari chairs
St. Edward’s chair
Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de
St. Peter, Chair of
Sarah Chair
Sauder, Erie J.
Scandinavia; see also Denmark; Sweden
Scandinavian folding stool
Schaff, Philip
Schaukensofa
Schinkel, Karl Friedrich
Schultz, Richard
Schwarzenberg family
scissors chair
Scotland
Scully, Vincent
Seattle Central Library
Secession movement
Seddon, George
Sené, Jean-Baptiste-Claude
Senna Chair
Series 7 chairs
settees
Shaker-style furniture
Shape of Time, The (Kubler)
shell chairs
Sheraton, Thomas
side chairs; American; ancient (see also klismos chairs); Chinese; Chippendale-style; French; knockdown; modernist; rustic; stacking; see also cabriole chairs; café chairs; dining chairs
Siesta-Medizinal
sitting posture; cultural and historical variations in; physiology of human body and
Sitzmaschine
Slate
Slumber Chair
Smithsonian Institution
sofas; rocking
Song dynasty
Song of Roland
Sotheby’s auction house
Sottsass, Ettore
South Carolina
Southeast Asia
Spain
sprung upholstery
stacking chairs
Staffel, Franz
Stam, Mart; cantilever chair
Standard-Möbel
steamer chairs
Stearns, Junius Brutus
Steinbeck, John
Stendig, Charles
Stickley, Gustav
Stockholm Public Library
Stone, Ebenezer
stools; ancient; camp; modernist; see also barstools; footstools; ottomans
Stradivari, Antonio
Strasser, Hans
Stratolounger
strollers
Stryker medical equipment company
studio furniture
Stumpf, William; Aeron Chair; Ergon Chair; Sarah Chair
“subjunctive ornament”
Summerson, John
surface modulation
Sur-repos, Le
swings
Switzerland
swivel chairs
tables; seating at (see also café chairs; dining chairs)
taborets
Taft, William Howard
Talleyrand-Périgord, Charles-Maurice de
task chairs
Thomsen, Nils
Thonet, August; No. 18; Schaukensofa
Thonet, Michael; café chairs; No. 14; see also Gebrüder Thonet
Thornton, Peter
thrones
Tilliard, Jean-Baptiste
Titanic (ship)
Tocqueville, Alexis de
To a God Unknown (Steinbeck)
Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri de
Townsend, John
Trollope, Frances
Troy, Jean-François de
Truman, Harry S.
Trumble, Francis
Tulip Chair
Turkey
umbrella stroller
United States; adequate supply of chairs in; adjustable chairs in; Fenby Chair in; holiday decorations in; House of Representatives Speaker’s chair in; knockdown furniture in; navy of; papasan chairs in; presidential desk chairs in; recliners in; rocking chairs in; studio furniture in; swings in; wood exported from
upholstered furniture; armchairs; desk chairs; easy chairs; French; modernist; recliners; rockers; side chairs; stools; wing chairs
valet chairs
Van Severen, Maarten
Vatican
Velardi, Marco
Venice
Venturi, Robert
Veranda Chair
Veronese, Paolo
Victoria and Albert Museum
Victoria Eugénie, Queen of Spain
Victory (ship)
Vienna
Vikings
Virgil
Virginia
Vispré, François-Xavier
Vitra Design Museum (Weil am Rhein, Germany)
Vivaldi, Antonio
Voltaire
Voysey, C.F.A.
Wagner, Otto; Fledermaus chair; Postsparkasse stool
Wanscher, Ole
Warren Chair Works
Washington, George
Washington, Martha
Washington Post
Wassily Chair
Watteau, Antoine
Webb, Philip
Wegner, Hans J.; Fireplace Chair; Flag Halyard Chair; Peacock Chair; rocking chair;
round chair; Shell Chair; three-shell chair; valet chair; Wishbone Chair
Weissenhoff Exhibition (Stuttgart, 1927)
Westminster Abbey
Westminster Cathedral
wheelchairs
White House
Wiener Werkstätte
Wilson, Woodrow
Windsor chairs; American; design influence of; English origin of; mass production and marketing of
wing chairs; variants of
Wishbone Chair
Wittgenstein, Ludwig
Womb Chair
World Chair
World War II
Wright, Frank Lloyd
X-frames
Yale University
yokeback chairs
ALSO BY WITOLD RYBCZYNSKI
Paper Heroes
Taming the Tiger
Home
The Most Beautiful House in the World
Waiting for the Weekend
Looking Around
A Place for Art
City Life
A Clearing in the Distance
One Good Turn
The Look of Architecture
The Perfect House
Vizcaya (with Laurie Olin)
Last Harvest
My Two Polish Grandfathers
Makeshift Metropolis
The Biography of a Building
How Architecture Works
Mysteries of the Mall
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Witold Rybczynski is a writer and an emeritus professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of How Architecture Works and Mysteries of the Mall and has written about architecture and design for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Slate. Among his award-winning books are Home, The Most Beautiful House in the World, and A Clearing in the Distance, which won the J. Anthony Lukas Prize. He is the winner of the 2007 Vincent Scully Prize and the 2014 Design Mind Award from the National Design Awards. He lives with his wife in Philadelphia. You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Frontispiece
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Epigraph
Introduction
1. A Tool for Sitting
2. If You Sit on It, Can It Still Be Art?
3. Sitting Up
4. A Chair on the Side
5. A Golden Age
6. Sack-backs and Rockers
7. The Henry Ford of Chairs
8. By Design
9. Great Dane
10. Fold and Knockdown, Swing and Roll
11. Human Engineering
12. Our Time
Notes
Notes on Sources
Acknowledgments
Index
Also by Witold Rybczynski
A Note About the Author
Copyright
Farrar, Straus and Giroux
18 West 18th Street, New York 10011
Copyright © 2016 by Witold Rybczynski
All rights reserved
First edition, 2016
All illustrations are by the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rybczynski, Witold, author.
Title: Now I sit me down: from klismos to plastic chair: a natural history / Witold Rybczynski.
Description: First edition. | New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2016. | Includes index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015041604 | ISBN 9780374223212 (hardback) | ISBN 9780374713355 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Chairs—History. | Sitting customs—History. | BISAC: ANTIQUES & COLLECTIBLES / Furniture. | ARCHITECTURE / History / General.
Classification: LCC NK2715 .R93 2016 | DDC 749/.3209—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015041604
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