Bradford opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1874-1881, 1877-11-10
ALL ABOUT CHAIRS.

ALL ABOUT CHAIRS.
Primitivc Heats Blocks and Three.IeGac'
stools-Thc Scats Of Ancient Europe-Th
! AedRn CHAIR = Curlous Mantrnps - Th,
Rsekins. Chair.
It is remarkable but also an un
doubted fact that the chairs Of oul
|. modern drawing.room are very little
better In shape than fac similes Of the
chairs made by the Etruscans 2,6O(
years ago.
Over 1,l0O years ago ''the Venerable
Bede, Saxon bishop and author, had q
chair which was simply narrow box
without q lid, formed Of rough boards
nailed together and set upright, with a
shelf near the lower end for seat.
The chair OF Edward H., surnamed
Ironside," from his bodily strength,
and who shared the throne Of England
with Canute in the year 1O16, was
formed of two carved beams Of oak,
crossed like the letter I, with cush-
ioned seat at the place where the two
beams crossed.
There is very ancient chair in ST.
Edmund's chapel, Westminster Abbey,
in which, since the time Of Edward l.,
all succeeding sovereigns Of England
have sat, at their cornation with the ex-
ception Of Edward ", who in 1880 was
murdered in the tower of London by
order Of his uncle, Richard III. The
chair is made Of oak, is large and gothic,
standing on four small lions, carved of
the same material. In a sort Of box
underneath the seat is the sacred black
stone "the stone Of destiny" - on
which for many generations up to the
year 1895 the Scottish kings were seated
at their Inauguration. The Scottish
tradition is that "the stone Of destiny" "
which was preserved for centuries at
Scone, was the stone which (as related
in Genesis, chapter xxxiii. Jacob used
as a pillow when he slept in the open
air at Bethel, and dreamed that he saw
a ladder reaching from earth to heaven,
on which the angels descended and
ascended. He set up that stone as n
pillar, and the legend runs that it finally
found it's way to Ireland, whence it was
taken into Scotland.
At a period known in art language as
the renaissance, the modern European
was struck with the idea Of going about
in chairs. About the year 1851 covered
chairs, supported by two poles, we're in
vented at Sedan, whence the name Of
these conveyances. Sir Sanders Dun
combe obtained patent for the Sedan
chair in 1884, and by 1649 it was in gen.
eral use in England. In n1711 an act was
passed in limiting the number of Ii
censed Sedan chairs to 200. but in 1726
it was increased to 400. When the
favorite -Buckingham-used this mode
of conveyance, he was hooted at by the
public, who cried that he was employing
his fellow creatures to do the service of |
beasts but this prejudice soon gave
way, and the Sedan chair, often hand
somely gilt and painted, became part of
the furniture of the hall in the houses
OF the nobility and the wealthier classes,
and chairmen formed part Of every
large establishment.
Most people love easy-chairs, and in
days gone by, Falstaff said he liked to
take his ease in his inn. Dryden and
the London "wits" had their special
arm chairs at Buttons and Wills"
coffee houses.
The ivory armchair presented to
Gustavus Vass by the city of Lubbock,
WAS sold in 1925 to the Swedish cham
berlain, NJ. Schmekel, for 1000 Aorins.
In the House of Lords, in London,
there is probably the most highly deco
rated throne in Europe, which is simply
q large chair.
Imprisoning chairs are stated to have
been employed by the monks in the
darker ages, and were originally designed
for the purpose Of entrapping those who
ventured to penetrate the mysteries of
seclusion. They were formed like COM
mon arm-chairs two levers were fixed
at the extremity Of the arms, and the
same number Immediately below the
seat. These, on pressing the cushion,
suddenly discharged four powerful
springs, acting on the levers like man
trap, and go firmly was the occupant Of
a chair of this description fixed, that it
would take the united force of four or
i've persons to set him free. A similar
chair was exhibited at Vile Borghese,
1t Rome, in 1914, and Evelyn, in his
says: "They showed us also
\ chayre which catches any one who sits
lowne in it, so as not to be able to stir
,ut. by certain springs concealed in the
.rmes and back thereof, which at sit
ing downe surprises man on the sud-
laine, locking him in by the armes or
highs, after trecherous italian guise.
The excellent, easy, and comfortable
'ocking-chair is only properly built in
he United States. Attempts to make it
n England have not yet succeeded.
Some handsome displays Of bent wood :
'ocking- chairs were in the Austrian Sec I
ion of the main building at the late :
Centennial. 4
In the city of Washington, on the ,
'vening Of the 14th day of April, 1855, 8
Abraham Lincoln, the President of the /
United States was shot by J. Wilkes @
sooth while sitting in q rocking-chair. 6
Plucky Mrs. Sawin. 4
Mrs. Sawin, Of Kansas, is q plucky r
roman who has q farm of $50 acres of a
rairie land. This spring she harvested u
en- acres of wheat of her own plowing n
nd sowing. and put down twenty acres 4,