For many people, the warmth and beauty of solid wooden furniture is inviting and reassuring; as if a touch of nature were still present in our modern, everyday lives. Wooden furniture is one of the earliest, and most important, inventions intended strictly for human comfort and pleasure. Understanding where our love affair with all things wooden comes from is an important part of understanding human nature and aesthetics.
•
•
Chairs
1. Perhaps the earliest form of wooden furniture, the wooden chair has seen many permutations over the centuries. In Egypt, chairs carved of wood were status symbols in that mostly-treeless environment. Pharoahs would sit upon thrones of carved cedar inlaid with gold and gems. Romans also carved chairs, but Roman chairs were an open “U” shape allowing the occupant to rest his arms but without a backrest to lean against.
Arguably the most intricately crafted chairs hail from the 18th and 19th centuries. French, American, English and German craftsmen all produced highly detailed, exquisitely-crafted wooden chairs that displayed the grains, knots and patterns of exotic woods, all protected under layers of lacquer.
Chests
2. Chests in China were cedar-lined boxes delicately enameled and lacquered to protect precious silks and clothes from destructive insects. Medieval European wooden chests were relatively watertight, sealed with tar or lacquer, to protect important documents such as maps and papers from the occasional storm. Chests have changed over time, and have even been given new name: armoire, wardrobe, chest-of-drawers and hope chest. Regardless of their name, the function is the same; to use the durability of wood to protect precious belongings while making the room more attractive.
Beds
3. Early beds were nothing more than piles of animal skins or straw with a blanket on top. But Mesopotamian and Egyptian nobles slept off the floor, thanks to a wooden frame with interwoven leather or hemp straps. The essential configuration of a bed remained largely unchanged for centuries until the early Renaissance. Beds then were considerably shorter than they are now for two reasons; people slept sitting up and mattresses were becoming more widely used.
In 19th century America, Sears Roebuck & Co. began selling beds that could be dismantled and re-assembled fairly easily and thus distributed wooden beds across the country in a few short decades.
Tables
4. As old as chairs are, tables must be nearly as old. Persian emperors and the Rajahs of the Indus valley used tables as platforms for games of Shataranj (also called “Chess”). Roman and Greek feasts rested upon intricately inlaid and carved tables. The mythical King Arthur ordered a round table built so that all knights of his realm might be seen as equal.
Simple but elegant tables in the Shaker style are still in high demand both for their quality and for their attractiveness. Born of the Protestant American religious philosophy of simplicity, functionality and modesty, Shaker tables are easily recognized across the world.
Desks
5. Writing desks became the province of educated gentlemen in during the Enlightenment. Thomas Jefferson is often depicted with quill in hand, sitting at a beautifully carved writing desk penning the Declaration of Independence.
Presidents of the United States are often photographed sitting behind an imposing, wooden desk known as the “Resolute Desk.” Originally a gift from Queen Victoria to Rutherford B Hayes, the Resolute Desk was made from the planks of the HMS Resolute, a British ship rescued from the Arctic, refitted, and returned to England two decades earlier. The Resolute Desk is usually the desk of choice of American presidents and serves as a reminder of the “special bond” between the United States and Great Britain.