Chair Design Accommodating the Ladies

[Sonny]

Just some more info I'm finding interesting... reading through "The Early F= urniture of French Canada". This info is relative to other than just Canad= ian furniture.

"Console legs" - When I read this, I asked, Now, what the heck is this. Br= acketed legs.

reading about this chair: "Armchair, having bracket or console-shap= ed legs as in 'Os de mouton chairs', and an arbal=E8te-fronted seat rail. = A curious mixture of styles. The back is in Louis XIV curvilinear form, wh= ile the set-back armrests are in the Louis XV manner. The incurved front s= eat rail of arbal=E8te form is very rare. The cross-stretcher is of the ty= pe known as a 'double chapeau de gendarme'."

Further reading about the armchair design: "The 'habitants', having seen t= his type of chair in the Seigneur's manor, quickly imitated it for use in t= heir homes. A great variety of specimens exist, some roughly made and some= the work of craftmen. At first, they were made with bracket posts, the tw= o front legs rising to a certain height, then curving back in a continuous = line to form the armrests of the chair. In the early eighteenth century, = the armrest were supported by brackets (supports d'accoudoir en console) se= t back a little from the front of the chair, to allow the ladies, whose ski= rts had taken on more ample proportions, to seat themselves elegantly witho= ut feeling confined. ...."

I had never realized the origin of the setting back of armrests/armrest pos= ts, from the front of the chair, was to accommodate the ladies, that way.

Sonny

[Sonny]

Hmmm!? - On a side note: After thinking about it, a moment, I'm surprised those French ladies had any objection as to how their skirts were accommodated.

Sonny

[J. Clarke]

those French ladies had any objection as to how their skirts were accommodated.

Bear in mind that from the 1300s to the early 1900s skirts often had some kind of frame underneath, some of them of rather ludicrous proportions.

[Swingman]

those French ladies had any objection as to how their skirts were accommodated.

Hoop skirts ...

[Stuart]

And these days it isn't their skirts that have taken on more ample proportions, it's their ugly great fat backsides