Now I Sit Me Down: From Klismos to Plastic Chair: A Natural History

by Witold Rybczynski

Have you ever wondered where rocking chairs came from, or why cheap plastic chairs are suddenly everywhere? In Now I Sit Me Down , the distinguished architect and writer Witold Rybczynski chronicles the history of the chair from the folding stools of pharaonic Egypt to the ubiquitous stackable monobloc chairs of today. He tells the stories of the inventor of the bentwood chair, Michael Thonet, and of the creators of the first molded-plywood chair, Charles and Ray Eames. He reveals the history of chairs to be a social history--of different ways of sitting, of changing manners and attitudes, and of varying tastes. The history of chairs is the history of who we are. We learn how the ancient Chinese switched from sitting on the floor to sitting in a chair, and how the iconic chair of Middle America--the Barcalounger--traces its roots back to the Bauhaus. Rybczynski weaves a rich tapestry that draws on art and design history, personal experience, and historical accounts. And he pairs these stories with his own delightful hand-drawn colonial rockers and English cabrioles, languorous chaise longues, and no-nonsense ergonomic task chairs--they're all here. The famous Danish furniture designer Hans Wegner once remarked, "A chair is only finished when someone sits in it." As Rybczynski tells it, the way we choose to sit and what we choose to sit on speak volumes about our values, our tastes, and the things we hold dear.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Design, Architecture, Art, Art Design, Cultural

256 pages, Hardcover

First published August 23, 2016

About the author

Witold Rybczynski was born in Edinburgh, of Polish parentage, raised in London, and attended Jesuit schools in England and Canada. He studied architecture at McGill University in Montreal, where he also taught for twenty years. He is currently the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also co-edits the Wharton Real Estate Review. Rybczynski has designed and built houses as a registered architect, as well as doing practical experiments in low-cost housing, which took him to Mexico, Nigeria, India, the Philippines, and China.

(From www.witoldrybczynski.com)

Reviews

[Piumi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a pretty good overview of chair history. Rybczynski does a good job at injecting narratives and characters in-between the historical facts of the chairs, which made it an easy read.

However, I personally like to take notes of the non-fiction books I read and the fact that this book is not chronological with the chair history makes it quite hard to study. What this book really needs is an annex of some sort that puts the chairs in order or in geographical location, something to help see the relationships between chairs/influences/cultures. If you're a visual person you'll have to look up images of the chair as you read which can be a hassle.

Additionally, it's important to know that this book is written from the perspective of a specific person, so the overview of chairs doesn't contain a entire world history of chairs. The history that is presented in this book is what Rybczynski finds to be important. Mainly that of Ancient, European, Chinese and American chairs.

My last point is that the dialogue between the western and eastern worlds is lacking. Rybczynski touches on the idea of mat-sitting cultures versus chair-sitting cultures and the comparison between the two, but doesn't delved further. I would have been interested to hear the connections that imperialism and colonization had on the ways in which cultures choose to sit and what types of chairs came out of the melding of the dominating culture versus the oppressed culture.

Either way, its a good introduction overview of chairs, further research required.

[Martha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll never look at a chair again without the deepest appreciation for what went into making it, how it fits into the long line of perfect and not so perfect brother and sister chairs, and the distinct personality it brings to its setting. The author has a conversational style of writing that is both informative and appealing. He sees the humor in human folly and rarely takes the high road when it comes to fashion and taste, but is very diplomatic in his aesthetic observations, giving careful note to so many details most of us would probably miss without a good teacher. Interestingly enough, the illustrations are minimal, which means the reader really has to use the words to picture the chairs described.

[Anne]

I guess the chair I was sitting in was too comfortable because I dozed right off whenever I tried to read this book.

[Book Grocer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Purchase Now I Sit Me Down here for just $12!

This is certainly an abstract piece that may nor suit everyones tastes, but is still an incredibly thorough, chronological exploration of the development of chairs and lounges in history, including the significance behind upholstered items, folding and plastic.

There is something incredibly charming and engrossing about reading the detailed history of an object that has become so normalised in our day to day lives. Discovering the significance and lineage of something that you may sit into, or see from day to day truly brings to light the rich history behind furniture and decoration, speaking to thousands and thousands of years of history and expert cultivation
Taylor - The Book Grocer

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Needs more pictures but otherwise a solid book about chairs.

[Thom · Rating 3 out of 5]

This Natural History follows roughly chronological events in the development of chairs and lounges, including upholstered, folding, and plastic. The author brings up anecdotes and chairs he has owned as comparisons, covering a decent history of chair design and art impact.

Drawings are small monochrome sketches, and sometimes this isn't enough to visualize a chair well. Fortunately, a nearby internet provides plenty of other options, at the risk of interrupting the narrative. I also wanted to know more about the bentwood style.

Stylistically this is well written and informative, and while the history jumped around a little, it wasn't excessive. A solid 3-4 stars.

[Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just engrossing! I have a new appreciation for chairs. Loved this book.

[Jodi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little dry at times and so I'm giving it only three stars.

I giggled at the school desks to improve student posture from the 1880s - seatbelt restraints, forehead restraints, and face rests. Oh my! How would my modern day students respond to this type of seating in my classroom! Eek!

I learned that I have Cabriole chairs in my dining room (modern day ones made by an Amish man. The Amish man designed my kitchen chairs with a Windsor look. Who knew?!? I have three bentwood chairs that are over 100 years old. At one point, the stamp on the bottom of the wood seating could be read, but I cannot any more. This would put my chairs being produced before the 1914 patent expired so possibly mine were created by Thonet. However, with my seats being wooden and not cained, plus all the coats of paint, and then stripping the paint, they are worth nothing. However, I love them because they belonged to my great grandmother.

Quotes I liked:

"A chair is only finished when someone sits in it." -Hans Wenger p. 155

"...The Seven Ages of Chairs: baby carriage, high chair, schoolroom chair, office chair, clubroom chair, recliner, wheelchair. Our lives begin and end in chairs on wheels." p. 172

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Are you sitting in a chair? This book probably covers where that chair fits into the history of chairs. One thing that's important: chairs don't always evolve to get better; after all they still make chairs copying or influenced by the Greek klismos chair. They mostly change according to available technology, and the culture of how we sit: upright, leaning or just outright lounging. There's a chair to epitomize each era of chair history. Alas, the quintessential chair of modern times is the plastic monobloc chair. No matter that it's not particularly comfortable, it's everywhere: gardens, churches, anyplace you need to be able to seat extra people.
Chapters are: A tool for sitting; If you can sit on it, can it still be art?; Sitting up; A chair on the side; A golden age; Sack-backs and rockers; The Henry Ford of chairs; By design; Great Dane; Fold and knockdown, swing and roll; Human engineering; Our time.
Illustrated here and there by Rybczynski's drawings.
I really like Rybczynski's books.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was something I saw on the new book shelves at the public library. A "history of the chair" sounds a little esoteric, but we all sit on chairs - well, actually not everyone in the world routinely does, which is one of the background topics covered - but certainly those reading this book would be sitting on chairs much of the time and if chairs are so central to modern life it seemed worth giving this book a try.

The book is organized well and I zipped through it (which I consider a good thing). There are helpful line-drawings to illustrate what some of the chairs mentioned are.

The one popular chair not discussed was the then-ubiquitous white wire chairs of the 1980s which did not age well in most cases - most were not well made and the while covering material would deteriorate followed by the chair rusting.

Bringing a book like this to a conclusion can be difficult; here it is well done.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

-1 star: I would have loved an appendix of illustration that did not earn a place in the body of the text. Knowing nothing (I think) about designers and architects, being able to see all models to which the author referred would have helped me understand.

Neat quotes and stuff I learned:

(p120-21) Seamless tubular steel, as in the bends of a bicycle handlebar, inspired Marcel Breuer's 'Wassily Chair', and "was the first technical innovatoin in furniture-making since Michael Thonet developed bentwood sixty-five years earlier."

(p172) Fighter jet undercarriage designer Owen Finlay Maclaren used similar techniques to create the umbrella stroller

(p177) "form does not follow function function, it follows culture"


People/Authors I want to look up:
Henry Dreyfuss (1960s) The Measure of a Man
Niels Diffrient, Humanscale
Mary Plumb Blade (eng prof at Cooper Union) (ca. 1946, studied sitting)

[Christine Henry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Witold Rybczynski is a wonderful writer who can be simultaneously lyrical and clear, exploring cultural meanings of the sitting position as well as the design innovations that have accompanied the evolution of how humans rest. He also explores the 19th-20th century design history of chairs as architecture with a critical eye. It is a great book both for architectural historians as well those interested in the cultural dimensions of design.

[Lindsay Grinstead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book but you must have an extensive knowledge of the history of dec arts/chairs to fully appreciate the text because there are very few sketches of the different chairs. For me, personally, this made it hard to read as I was constantly stopping to look up terms and different chairs online. That being said, he does a good job of tracing chairs from the very beginning in a narrative way.

[Andrea Renfrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this quite a bit, as did my 12 year old. It was the main source used while she was writing a research paper on the history of chairs. Kiddo was learning how to research backward from secondary sources and this was a perfect book and topic to practice that. We highly recommend this for other middle and highschool students who enjoy diving into a focused topic that enriches their understanding of history and the world around them.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who would have thought that a history of chair design could be so interesting? I'll never look at a stool, chair, chaise lounge, couch, ottoman, chesterfield, side chair, futon, bean bag chair etcetera the same way ever again. Witold Rybcynski is not just a knowledgeable man regarding seating devices - he is also a very good writer.

[David Freudenburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not know that designers actually had to think about how to build a chair! And, believe it or not, it's not just about comfort. The design must also consider history, culture, practical needs, how it will be used, which room it will be used in, cost, materials available, and popular style. What an enlightening book!

[Elizabeth Byerly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written high-level history of chair design. The text feels more substantial as it comes closer to the present and focuses on individual known designers. The review of the progression of chairs up to about 1700 was thin and might have felt better if anchored even more to specific individual historical examples (whole or in images).

[Popup-ch · Rating 3 out of 5]

klismos
bergere
cabriole
bentwood
wing
side
curule
Recamier
Voyeuse
Ponteuse
Windsor
Wassily
Adirondack
Cantilever
Papasan
Desk
Butterfly
Beanbag

All kinds of chairs are treated here, but there's a definite focus on mid-20th-century Danish design.

[Margaret Sellergren · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great education

Now where ever I go and there are chairs I'm able to better identify where and whom they originated from. I better understand as well the history of the world though the evolution of the chair.

[Jean Chard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would have given it five stars but I would have liked more pictures. The small black an white drawings are excellent, but I wanted more! Fascinating book. I will never look at chairs the same way again..

[Lisa K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stuff and some moments of lovely prose, but just a little too much even for me, a dec arts enthusiast. Probably not for the general reader: for the design or architect student or professional.

[Brice Fuqua · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short, but encyclopedic survey of chair design, from the ancient Greek Klismos to today's plastic patio chair. No photographs, but nice, line drawings.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one needed more photographs of all the mentioned furniture and art. I spent a lot of time jumping back and forth from a google search and the text. Still a lot of fun!

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid companion to an exploration of furniture design. I would have liked to see more drawings/photos.

[Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always loved chairs and now I understand why.

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light reading but rather fun if the history of chairs has any interest for you.

[Dave Oakley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 but ill bump to 4 cuz sitting rulez

[Mark]

Joe Pera sent me here

[Dan Kondzela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t really read non fiction, and it was a bit dry. But also interesting.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tale of chairs cross eras, from Egyptian onward. How China transitioned from floor mats to chairs. Swings. Other topics. (A bit too much on modern designers of chairs for my taste.)