Most of us take for granted the comfort of a well-proportioned padded armchair,
but three centuries ago, the protocol of the French court permitted only the
king an armchair, while his minions jockeyed for backless stools. What was de
rigueur then, changed, with the 18th century's newfound egalitarianism and grace,
into upholstered chairs for everyone.
In the hands of the style-conscious French, who were setting the bar in Europe
for beautiful and versatile seating forms, the once regal armchair grew more
democratic, with prettier, smaller proportions for portability and plump upholstery
for greater comfort.
One of these upholstered seats with arms, known as the bergère,
has not relinquished the popularity that its tublike accommodation afforded
through the ages. Today, the form is known simply as the tub chair.
"The term 'tub' was probably initially recorded by Thomas Sheraton in
his 'Cabinet Dictionary' of 1804," says Robert Trent, an independent consultant
in American furniture. He explains that rounded-back chairs built on the D-shaped
plan were unknown before the period of Louis XV, when references appeared in
French publications, such as Diderot's encyclopedia.
"English- and French-made
upholstered chairs brought to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston in the late
18th century had the rounded side and seat rails that Sheraton called the 'tub,'" Trent says. Whereas the high-back tub model evolved into the easy chair,
its low-back variant was less common in the United States than it was in France
and England. Sheraton pictures one in his "Cabinet Dictionary" and
labels it "a cabriole armchair stuffed all over." In France, the shape
of the chair back determined its type: à la reine carried a flat
back; en cabriolet had a rounded, concave back.
George Bright, a cabinetmaker in Boston, made 30 snug, low-back tub chairs
for Boston's new state house in 1797. The chairs were only about 3 feet high
and, with a depth of 2 feet, they were deeper than they were wide. Charles F.
Montgomery, in his book American Furniture -- The Federal Period 1788-1825,
said it was "one of the neatest surviving chairs of its type ... originally
derived from the French by the English."
How did this mite of a chair from the American Republic hold its own throughout
the Victorian age? Cheryl Robertson, an independent scholar and museum consultant
in decorative arts from Cambridge, Massachusetts, explains, "The Victorian era
loved curved forms, such as the tub shape, which advances in the lamination
process facilitated. In fact, the curving backs were central to the rococo revival
aesthetic of Victorian parlor suites." The curvaceous chair resurfaced, particularly
in France, in the Art Deco period of the early 20th century.
