our group is very entrenched in the middle class. Thing is, we have a couple ladies who are Very Delicate Blossoms and really need chairs with backs. Our rules state that nothing inappropriate to our time, place and station (middle class, 1466 Franco-Flemish) is allowed in public view.

currently they bring a backed chair and stash it in their tents and spend quite a bit of time in there alone.

Can anyone think of examples of chairs with backs that would be appropriate for us?

also, the X-type chairs...when/where/what station are those? do those have backs sometimes?

your help is appreicated, especially if it comes with primary source documentation of course .

--Anne-Marie

PS...we're a bunch of townspeople on the road with a big baggage train, so furniture of some types is not totally out of line for us....at least not according to my reading!

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Is a settle out of the question?

Mitake.

Another type is the so-called Glastonbury chair. We don't know the date of the chair in Glastonbury (too clouded by "ancient tradition"), but a chair of the same construction appears (sadly not in its entirety) in Memling's Bathsheba in her Bath in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, which de Vos dates 1485-90. I have a picture of a similar chair in the Museo Civico, Turin, which they believe to be mid-15th century. My source suggests the type is Netherlandish, although this example is probably N. Italian, based on its decoration.

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many thanks for all the great info, keep it coming!

I would concur that most types of backed chairs (Glastonbury chair, etc) are more upper class than we'd care to go .

I also have seen examples of the "spinning stools" that are basically a stool with a lumbar support thingie. This seems perfetly appropriate to our station, etc.

the front/back X chair with the one "arm" forming the back would be perfect if we could definatively pinpoint the date...they seem very portable and it makes sense that one could throw the chair in the baggage train, unlike those wonderful settles, etc.

I've also seen pictures of those wonderful "amish" looking tall backed rush seated ladderchairs in VERY middle class households. But how portable would they be? I suppose if someone HAD to travel and had a bad back, they would make room (they dont weigh much but strike me as bulky and hard to pack), but it hits me as definate house furniture as opposed to camping furniture.

I recognise that each group needs to set its own bar. We tend to have a lot of toys and such as middle class posers that a group like the Red Co wouldnt have, and normally I totally eschew "backwards documentation", ie "I want THIS, so find me documentation!"

its just that our badback crew cant do dishes if they're stuck in their tent .

so, the front-back chair and the ladderback rush seat chair seem the most likely options, but I'd love to see some more data, specifically dating the front-back chair (it sure seems the technology would be appropriate since we have the side-side chairs pinpointed right on, and half the time I sit in my side-side chair sideways anyway ), and/or anything suggesting that a household furniture item like the rush seat chair could have been toted about.

barring that, anyone know a source for spinning stools?

--AM

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Ulfgar is absolutely correct regarding formalities. At a dinner held during "The War of Public Weal", according to de Commines who was an eyewitness, the Dukes of Berry & Brittany were seated at table in backed chairs, while the Count of Charolais was seated on a 'form' (stool). Only the three of them were dining, but it was a formal dinner, and the Dukes outranked the count, even though he was the ringleader of the coalition. Would anyone like to put forward the idea the Count of charlois didn't have several backed chairs in his baggage (at least)? It wouldn't be a good bet.

In a middle class setting, the head of the household would get the backed chair if the occasion was formal. If there were multiple backed chairs and things were informal - who knows? Certainly an important guest, other than that the 'chairmans' wife. I don't think there would be enough to go around. There is a lovely formal dining arrangement from the late 16th century in Selgrave Manor, that has a dormant table, which has a proper chair at the head, and the rest of the seating are well joined and carved forms.

Sitting and complete privacy are two things far more done today than they were in the 15th century.

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The women appear to be dressed in middle upper class clothing, and appear to be occupied in ordinary work, however there are putti on the right of the painting and it is set in the countryside. There's some allegory going on here but I suspect it is more involved with the setting, and the way the work is being carried out is factual.

See the work here: http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/c/cossa/schifano/1march.html