Hall Chairs

Small, formal and more decorative than functional hall chairs were first named by Robert Manwaring, a furniture designer, in The Chair-Makers Real Friend and Companion, published in 1865.
Thomas Sheraton noted in The Cabinet Dictionary that chairs such as those that are placed in halls are for the use of servants or strangers waiting on business”. These wooden chairs were usual])- smaller than side
chairs. They had turned seats and often had the crest or arms of the farmily carved or painted on the chair back. Some chairs were made with plain backs so that families could have their own insignia carved or painted onto the basic chair.
The hall chair first appeared when Thomas Chippendale illustrated six designs of chairs for ‘Halls. Passages, or Summer-Houses’ in his Director.
Rival cabinet-makers, William Ice and John Mathew published three designs for hall chairs in the gothic taste” in their serialized pattern book, The Universal System off Household Furniture (1759-02). If it was too
expensive to carve the decorative crest on the back, then it was considered acceptable to “be painted, and have a very, good effect”.
Hall chairs These illustrations are from Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman & Cabinet-Maker’s Director, 1762 (Plate XVII).
ENGLISH HALL CHAIR
One of a pair, this mahogany chair is modelled on the Renaissance sgabello chair. It has a shaped, waisted back and shaped seat. The front support and seat have indented panels, designed to bear a crest. c.1780.
FRENCH HALL CHAIR
This chair, one of a set of four, has a pierced wheel back with a central, raised, circular plaque. The wide, slightly dished seat is supported on tapered legs, and the front legs terminate in spade feet. c.1770.