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

by Witold Rybczynski

Overview

A grand tour of the chair through the ages by our foremost writer on design

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 illustrations: 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374537036
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	08/22/2017
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	1,100,331
Product dimensions:	5.62(w) x 8.31(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

Witold Rybczynski is a writer and an emeritus professor of architecture at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of How Architecture Works and Mysteries of the Mall and has written about architecture and design for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and Slate. Among his award-winning books are Home, The Most Beautiful House in the World, and A Clearing in the Distance, which won the J. Anthony Lukas Prize. He is the winner of the 2007 Vincent Scully Prize and the 2014 Design Mind Award from the National Design Awards. He lives with his wife in Philadelphia.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1 A Tool for Sitting 9

2 If You Sit on It, Can It Still Be Art? 25

3 Sitting Up 39

4 A Chair on the Side 57

5 A Golden Age 69

6 Sack-backs and Rockers 87

7 The Henry Ford or Chairs 101

8 By Design 117

9 Great Dane 139

10 Fold and Knockdown, Swing and Roll 157

11 Human Engineering 179

12 Our Time 199

Notes on Sources 221

Acknowledgments 229

Index 231

Editorial Reviews

This is a book to savor in a favorite chair. Maybe you’ll even find the one you’re sitting in reflected in its pages: Now I Sit Me Down is charmingly illustrated with postage-stamp-size images of many of the chairs discussed—all drawn with obvious care by the author.” —Henry Petroski, The Wall Street Journal

“Rybczynski adds another delightful volume to an already impressive shelf of books notable for formidable learning worn lightly and an infectious fascination with the way we craft the built environment . . . His prose has the engagingly conversational tone of an accomplished lecturer. You needn’t be a student of architecture or design to enjoy Now I Sit Me Down, but you will certainly come away knowing a lot more about the practices and principles that shaped chairs throughout history.” —Wendy Smith, The Boston Globe

The book is a slim, insightful introduction to the piece of furniture that shapes not only the way we sit, but the way we live, too.” —Mark Medley, The Globe and Mail

“Whether describing the Egyptian stool or its surprising descendant, the Hollywood director’s chair, Rybczynski elegantly sums up the social trends and technological innovations that have conspired to change the way we sit . . . There is a tactile quality to the writing.” —Amanda Kolsen Hurley, Architect Magazine

"[Rybczynski is] a refreshing voice on the design writing scene.” —MiChelle Jones, The Dallas Morning News

“With wit, scholarship and perspective, Witold Rybczynski's history of chairs and how we use them is a pure delight.” —Shelf Awareness(starred review)

"Who knew sitting was so complicated? Or so fascinating? Rybczynski . . . has a special knack for making everyday objects and ideas seem captivating, in part because he places them in a larger historical narrative. In his telling, the chair becomes a seemingly immortal character traveling, Forest Gump-like, through the vicissitudes of our shared history.” —Doug Childers, Richmond Times-Dispatch

“The chair becomes anything but everyday in Rybczynski’s discerning history . . . A worthy addition to Rybczynski’s well-regarded oeuvre, this cultured examination should be read in one’s favorite reading chair.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Rybczynski is totally engaging in this smoothly flowing, sharp, witty narrative—another winner from a top-notch writer on design.” —Kirkus Reviews

“[A] detailed and comprehensive history of the chair . . . .Rybczynski’s relentless curiosity is easily transferred to the reader as he astutely zeroes in on the details of what makes a chair design special or significant. This latest contribution from Rybczynski serves as further evidence that he is one of the best writers on design working today.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

From the Publisher

★ 04/18/2016
The humble chair conceals a surprising amount of world history, sociology, and art in its deceptively simple design, according to design and architecture critic Rybczynski (Mysteries of the Mall). This detailed and comprehensive history of the chair begins by asking why certain cultures sit in chairs at all. Looking at seats, from a stool used in China in the second century C.E. to Charles and Ray Eames’s now-famous 1950 plastic shell chair, Rybczynski studies the base materials and innumerable innovative techniques that designers, furniture makers, and architects have applied to the chairs that people so often take for granted. He discusses dozens of different varieties of chairs, including the curved-leg Greek klismos, the classic Chippendale wing chair, the BarcaLounger, and the world’s most ubiquitous chair: the white plastic monobloc (one-piece) patteo chair, which is cheap and remarkably versatile and adapts to almost any environment or culture. Rybczynski’s relentless curiosity is easily transferred to the reader as he astutely zeroes in on the details of what makes a chair design special or significant. This latest contribution from Rybczynski serves as further evidence that he is one of the best writers on design working today. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

2016-05-14
The acclaimed popularizer and purveyor of all things architectural scrutinizes a "tool for sitting." A man of boundless curiosity, Rybczynski (Emeritus, Architecture/Univ. of Pennsylvania; Mysteries of the Mall: And Other Essays, 2015, etc.) turns his roving eye to something found in every home: the common yet paradoxical chair, which "endures, even as it never ceases to change." But this isn't a mere design history; it's also a "chronicle of human behavior." The author is fascinated with chairs because they "address both physiology and fashion." They try to balance artistry, status, gravity, construction, and comfort. As he notes, chairs "are inanimate objects, but they speak to us." Rybczynski is particularly taken by the ancient Greek klismos chair, "considered by many to be the most graceful chair ever made." It was a beautifully proportioned chair for everyday use, a "sitting tool distilled to its essence….It's perfect." Accompanying the description is one of the author's delicate, hand-drawn illustrations, which appear throughout the book. His succinct discussion of why the ancient Chinese switched from sitting on the floor to chairs is marvelous. The "quintessential" American chair, the rocker, probably appeared in the early 1700s. By the 1820s, it was a "national fad." The "Henry Ford of chairs" is the "landmark figure" Michael Thonet. Not only did he invent a new technique for making chairs in the 19th century, he also created a way to mass-produce them. The Adirondack chair emerged in 1903, while the fold-up aluminum chair popped up in 1947 at the same time as the "stately" BarcaLounger. In the 1940s and '50s, the Eames brothers' shell chairs were the rage. Now, "the most common chair on the planet" is the "furniture equivalent of rubber flip-flops." It's the plastic, monobloc chair, which has literally littered our planet. Rybczynski is totally engaging in this smoothly flowing, sharp, witty narrative—another winner from a top-notch writer on design.

Kirkus Reviews