A Morris chair is an early type of reclining chair. The design was adapted by William Morris's firm, Morris & Company, from a prototype owned by Ephraim Colman in rural Sussex, England. It was first marketed around 1866. [1]
A Morris chair is an early type of reclining chair. The design was adapted by William Morris's firm, Morris & Company, from a prototype owned by Ephraim Colman in rural Sussex, England. It was first marketed around 1866. [1]
Morris chairs feature a seat with a reclining back and moderately high armrests, which give the chair an old-style appearance. The characteristic feature of a Morris chair is a hinged back, set between two un-upholstered arms, with the reclining angle adjusted through a row of pegs, holes or notches in each arm. In other instances, the reclining of the back is controlled by a metal bar set in hooked back racks. The original Morris chair had dark stained woodwork, turned spindles and heavily decorated upholstery, in typical Victorian style.
The chair was widely copied after Morris' introduction, and is still manufactured. The appearance and style of upholstery is usually quite different from Morris's, but the overall layout is constant. There are two rather distinct types of these chairs. One type, called the "traditional" Morris chair evolved in America directly from the Morris original. It often features carving and serpentine shapes. These chairs were produced in the hundreds of thousands from about 1890 to 1930 in versions ranging from affordable to very high-end. At the low price end, these chairs were sold by The Larkin Soap Company and other large firms such as Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward. The more expensive chairs were those made by Horner and other exclusive furniture makers.
The other style of Morris chair is called the "Mission" or the "Craftsman" Morris chair. The best known examples are those were first produced by Gustav Stickley [2] in 1904 and then widely copied afterwards. These are in the American Craftsman idiom, rather than English Arts & Crafts styles. Woodwork is lightly finished and largely undecorated oak in rectangular sections. Upholstery comprises unframed cushions in brown leather, or green or brown fabric. The Craftsman or Mission style of Morris chair is often thought of as a Stickley design named in homage to Morris, rather than an original Morris piece. As with all Stickley, these chairs are keenly collected today and originals fetch several thousands of dollars.
The chair is a popular subject with amateur furniture makers, particularly in the USA. [3] [4]
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 and leans against the vertical back. The legs are typically high enough for the seated person's thighs and knees to form a 90°-or-lesser angle. Used in a number of rooms in homes, in schools and offices, 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.
A couch, also known as a sofa, settee, or chesterfield, is a cushioned item of furniture for seating multiple people. It is commonly found in the form of a bench, with upholstered armrests, and often fitted with springs and tailored cushion and pillows. Although a couch is used primarily for seating, it may be used for sleeping. In homes, couches are normally put in the family room, living room, den or lounge, or wherever couches are best appreciated. They are sometimes also found in non-residential settings such as hotels, lobbies of commercial offices, waiting rooms, and bars. Couches can also vary in size, color, and design.
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something.
A slipcover is a fitted protective cover that may be slipped off and on a piece of upholstered furniture. Slipcovers are usually made of cloth. Slipcovers slip on and off, they come fresh, and may be removed for seasonal change, cleaning, moving, or storage.
Chairs are known from Ancient Egypt and have been widespread in the Western world from the Greeks and Romans onwards. They were in common use in China from the twelfth century, and were used by the Aztecs. In Sub-Saharan Africa, chairs was not in use before introduced by Europeans.
Gustav Stickley was an American furniture manufacturer, design leader, publisher, and a leading voice in the American Arts and Crafts movement. Stickley's design philosophy was a major influence on American Craftsman architecture.
Mission Style may refer to:
La-Z-Boy Inc. is an American furniture manufacturer based in Monroe, Michigan, USA, that makes home furniture, including upholstered recliners, sofas, stationary chairs, lift chairs and sleeper sofas. The company employs more than 11,000 people.
In furniture-making, the upholstery frame of a piece of furniture gives the structural support and determines the basic shape of the upholstered furniture. The frame may be a basic piece of wooden furniture prior to its being upholstered. Like a finished piece of furniture prior to the upholstering, the frame establishes the final quality, including its durability, and sets limits upon the final design, padding, cushioning, or cover.
Upholstery coil springs are an important part of most modern upholstery. The consumer usually never sees the construction features of an upholstered piece. The overall quality of the materials and construction dictate the comfort level of an upholstered piece and its ability to satisfy the consumer over the long term. A basic upholstered piece may be composed of a frame, springs, foam, cushioning, padding, and textiles.
American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its immediate ancestors in American architecture are the Shingle style, which began the move away from Victorian ornamentation toward simpler forms; and the Prairie style of Frank Lloyd Wright. The name "Craftsman" was appropriated from furniture-maker Gustav Stickley, whose magazine The Craftsman was first published in 1901. The architectural style was most widely used in small-to-medium-sized Southern California single-family homes from about 1905, so that the smaller-scale Craftsman style became known alternatively as "California bungalow". The style remained popular into the 1930s, and has continued with revival and restoration projects through present times.
Ercol is the name of a British furniture manufacturer. The firm dates back to 1920, when it was established in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, as Furniture Industries by Lucian Ercolani (1888–1976).
The forms of Chinese furniture evolved along three distinct lineages which dates back to 1000 BC, based on frame and panel, yoke and rack and bamboo construction techniques. Chinese home furniture evolved independently of Western furniture into many similar forms including chairs, tables, stools, cupboards, cabinets, beds and sofas. Until about the 10th century CE the Chinese sat on mats or low platforms using low tables, in typical Asian style, but then gradually moved to using high tables with chairs.
Craftsman Farms is a historic house located in Parsippany-Troy Hills, Morris County, New Jersey, United States. It was founded by noted early 20th century designer Gustav Stickley as a farm and school for the Arts and Crafts movement. It remained in use until 1915 when it was sold to a family and became a private house.
Mission furniture is a style of furniture that originated in the late 19th century. It traces its origins to a chair made by A.J. Forbes around 1894 for San Francisco's Swedenborgian Church. The term mission furniture was first popularized by Joseph P. McHugh of New York, a furniture manufacturer and retailer who copied these chairs and offered a line of stylistically related furnishings by 1898. The word mission references the Spanish missions throughout colonial California, though the design of most Mission Style furniture owed little to the original furnishings of these missions. The style became increasingly popular following the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. The style was popularly associated with the American Arts and Crafts movement.
Since the mid-17th century a chair-maker, or chairbler, is a craftsman in the furniture trades specializing in chairs. Before that time seats were made by joiners, turners, and coffermakers, and woven seats were made by basketmakers. In 18th-century London, chair-makers might work on their own account, or within the workshop of upholders, as members of the upholstery trade were called.
"Craftsman furniture" refers to the Arts and Crafts Movement style furniture of Gustav Stickley's Craftsman Workshops.
Ammonia fuming is a wood finishing process that darkens wood and brings out the grain pattern. It consists of exposing the wood to fumes from a strong aqueous solution of ammonium hydroxide which reacts with the tannins in the wood. The process works best on white oak because of the high tannin content of this wood. Fumed oak is also called smoked oak. Other species may also be fumed, but usually will not darken as much as white oak. The introduction of the process is usually associated with the American furniture maker Gustav Stickley at the beginning of the 20th century, but fuming was certainly known in Europe before this.
Olav Haug was a Norwegian furniture designer and master craftsman whose furniture designs demonstrated a deep understanding of woodwork and quality craftsmanship. His designs won him awards and production orders from numerous governmental and publics institutions, yet he remains a relatively unknown figure in the Norwegian mid-century design landscape.
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