made at the end of the
13th century for Edward I., in which most subsequent monarchs have been
crowned. It is of an architectural type and of oak, and was covered with
gilded _gesso_ which long since disappeared.

Passing from these historic examples we find the chair monopolized by
the ruler, lay or ecclesiastical, to a comparatively late date. As the
seat of authority it stood at the head of the lord's table, on his dais,
by the side of his bed. The seigneurial chair, commoner in France and
the Netherlands than in England, is a very interesting type,
approximating in many respects to the episcopal or abbatial throne or
stall. It early acquired a very high back and sometimes had a canopy.
Arms were invariable, and the lower part was closed in with panelled or
carved front and sides--the seat, indeed, was often hinged and
sometimes closed with a key. That we are still said to sit "in" an
arm-chair and "on" other kinds of chairs is a reminiscence of the time
when the lord or seigneur sat "in his chair." These throne-like seats
were always architectural in character, and as Gothic feeling waned took
the distinctive characteristics of Renaissance work. It was owing in
great measure to the Renaissance that the chair ceased to be an appanage
of state, and became the customary companion of whomsoever could afford
to buy it. Once the idea of privilege faded the chair speedily came into
general use, and almost at once began to reflect the fashions of the
hour. No piece of furniture has ever been so close an index to sumptuary
changes. It has varied in size, shape and sturdiness with the fashion
not only of women's dress but of men's also. Thus the chair which was
not, even with its arms purposely suppressed, too ample during the
several reigns of some form or other of hoops and farthingale, became
monstrous when these protuberances disappeared. Again, the costly laced
coats of the dandy of the 18th and early 19th centuries were so
threatened by the ordinary form of seat that a "conversation chair" was
devised, which enabled the buck and the ruffler to sit with his face to
the back, his valuable tails hanging unimpeded over the front. The early
chair almost invariably had arms, and it was not until towards the close
of the 16th century that the smaller form grew common.

The majority of the chairs of all countries until the middle of the 17th
century were of oak without upholstery, and when it became customary to
cushion them,