14th or 15th century chairs

[Asbjorn Johansen]

I’ve realized I’m sadly lacking in furniture, so I’ve been looking a manuscripts to get a feel for what was done.

For the 14th century I was aware of the basic x chair shown here:

http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/manuscrits/aman5/i1_0018.htm

But I’m intrigued by this:

http://www.bnf.fr/enluminures/manuscrits/aman5/i1_0012.htm

For some reason this looks strange to me. I may be allowing reconstructions I have seen to influence me, but I thought an X chair was typically made so that there is an X in the front and X in the back and you sit on the seat set above the center point o the cross. The chair can then be folded. This one looks like the X’s are on each side with a seat suspended across the center. Maybe I’m just interpreting the picture wrong.
With the seat as narrow as this I wonder how comfortable it is.

Then I saw this:

http://www.bnf.fr/enlum-bin/imagemap.exe/i1_0020a?112,53

Any guess about how these are constructed? The shape reminds me of some wicker and rattan furniture I saw in the 80’s.

Anyone else have any good images of 14th or 15th century chairs?

Asbjorn

[Gaston de Clermont]

My guess is that the two gold dog headed chairs shown are intended to be the same chair. There are a lot of images of that one, mostly in that manuscript collection. Maybe it's just tough to draw from the side.
That said, there's a fair amount of evidence that before the era you're examining the Xs in fauld stools were more commonly turned the 90 degrees from what we see in the first image.
I've seen a few chairs like the last one you've got there in museums. They're invariably made of wood, and look pretty heavy. They may have made them out of other things, and only the ones which were too heavy to get looted survived.
I've got some good chair pictures at home. Bug me if I don't post them in the next week or so.

[Asbjorn Johansen]

Thanks for the feedback.

Have you sat in one with the legs turned 90 degrees from the first chair. If so, how comfortable was it? I'd think the the seat would have to be fairly small to make it fold, and possibly less comfortable.

Asbjorn

[Gaston de Clermont]

Unfortunately I haven't parked in one myself. One of the images I still have to dig up for you shows what looks to me like a pretty small seat, and honestly it looks a bit unstable. It has survived since the 15th century though, so maybe there's something to it.
As an aside, a furniture laurel I know theorizes that folks tended to "perch" more than the modern "slouch"- in part due to the restrictions of their hose- particularly in the 15th century when hose points tended to go around the back too. I don't think anyone could claim there's a universal truth to that, but it is interesting that many chairs we have surviving depections or examples of don't lend themselves to the way we sit now.