Get Free ACN Daily Headlines by Email
Now, you can get the latest headlines from Auction Central News delivered right to your mailbox every day! It's free, secure, and the best way to stay up to date with everything in the world of auctions, art, antiques and more. Just complete the form below and reply to the confirmation email - it's that easy.
Search Auction Central News
Monthly Columns in ACN
-
Kovels - Antiques & Collecting: Week of Nov. 2, 2009Read more...
-
Live Auction Talk: 'Jurassic Park'Read more...
-
Kovels - Antiques & Collecting: Week of Oct. 26, 2009Read more...
-
Cowan's Corner: Making a stand with Gen. Custer itemsRead more...
-
Furniture Specific: Hands-on evaluation can be a quick readRead more...
Right Now on ACN
We have 1107 guests online
| Furniture Specific: Sex and the Seating |
 |
 |
 |
| Written by Fred Taylor |
| Saturday, 09 August 2008 20:23 |
|
Latin is a dead language, dead as it can be. First it killed the Romans, and now it’s killing me.” I heard that refrain numerous times in the two years of high school that I took instruction in that archaic form of communication. One of the things that always bugged me about Latin was the requirement that nouns have a gender associated with them. For example a table was tabula, a masculine form. Other nouns were feminine, and yet others were neutral. Why? It didn’t really matter to me, but it must have mattered to the Romans, because the plural and possessive forms of nouns were determined by their gender. Parlor set Roux
Today it matters even less to most of us what the supposed gender, if any, of a piece of furniture, happens to be. A chair is a chair, and a table is a table. That sexist stuff doesn’t work anymore – except in certain cases like a “gentleman’s chest” or a “lady’s writing desk.” But those are easy to figure out, and most of those items are from a time past. But during parts of that “time past,” certain furniture forms and their uses were very strongly associated with gender, as were parts of the house, parts of the world and seating order in the drawing room. In the second half of the 19th century, at the beginning of the high point of the Victorian culture, society arranged itself and most of its belongings and activities by gender. In general, the outside, where work was done and money was made, was a male world. Inside the house was where children were born, nurtured and educated, and it was a female world. In the Victorian home, the foyer or entryway was the neutral transition space between the masculine outside world and the feminine interior. But it was a little more complicated that that. For example, what about common areas of the house that had to be shared? No Victorian gentleman would completely surrender his status or power just because he was in the house. Compromises and agreements had to be reached. The dining room was a good example. The furnishings had to be properly elegant, and in keeping with the spirit of the times, properly dense. But the overall culture of the dining room reflected the fact that food, at least during most of the recorded history of the race, was the result of a successful hunt, a type of blood sport. And this was a masculine activity, with the furniture reflecting that theme in some way. It was often illustrated by scenes of game animals and fish, and gathered grain and fruit carved in the sideboard. Some of the same scenes were even carved into the crest rails of the chairs. It was irrelevant that most men of the Victorian era did not provide food for their families by hunting, but the symbolism was important to convey the fact that the man did provide the means for the family in most circumstances. The compromises came in such areas as manners, courtesy and tableware, the domain of the feminine side of the house. Three-piece Parlor Set
 By the end of the 19th century, the mores on parlor sets had eased substantially. This Empire Revival set from around the turn of the 20th century has only three pieces and even includes a rocking chair. Photo courtesy of LiveAuctioneers.com Archive. A more obvious example of shared common space with gender divisions was found in the parlor or sitting room. This was not a space normally used during the everyday activities of the household. This was a space for “formal” sitting when the family was on display, usually while entertaining a visitor or relative. Elegance and posture were more important than the actual furniture, but it didn’t take long for furniture to follow the form and reinforce the required postures and positions. The formal parlor suite appeared in the mid-19th century, and most major cabinetmakers of the period took a shot at producing a memorable set or two. Foremost among them were such luminaries as Belter, Meeks, Jelliff and, slightly later, Hunzinger and Pottier & Stymus, among many others. Most original formal sets consisted of seven pieces: the sofa, the main focus of the set; the gentleman’s chair, the lady’s chair and four smaller side chairs. The sofa was reserved for the most important non-family member in the seating order. It offered the greatest variety of positions and postures, yet remained anonymous within the group. The other chairs were assigned seating. The gentleman’s chair was almost as imposing as the sofa, with a high back, a wide seat and padded armrests. And no one else dared sit there even in his absence. The lady’s chair was much less imposing as was befitting her rank in the family, at least to outsiders. Her chair was smaller with a lower, narrower back and much lower, if any, arms. The arms were seldom padded and were downward sloping. They were not meant to be used to support the lady’s arms. That was the job of her lap. The remaining four chairs most often were armless side chairs with open, low backs, reserved for much-lower-status attendees. The form reached its height in the 1870s and declined in popularity after that, but it didn’t really fade away until after the turn of the century. As it faded out, the composition of the set changed slightly, as did the characteristics of the individual elements. Newer sets included fewer pieces. The 1902 Sears catalog shows five-, four- and three-piece sets with the three-piece versions most prominently displayed. The sofas became two-seaters, and all the seating was relatively smaller than previously. But the gender distinction remained, with one chair notably larger and more imposing than all the others, and with one chair obviously in a secondary position but superior to all others except the largest one. The gender designation for chairs became even more clear beginning around the time of the parlor set, in a slightly different setting. Males have very rarely been able to sit in perfect posture in a straight chair for any reasonable length of time. First comes a little shifting. Eventually the shifting around becomes squirming and the squirming becomes draping over the back of the chair. It is only a matter of time before the space between upright and reclining is explored. The first manifestation of this exploration is “tipping”, the leaning back in the chair until equilibrium is reached, contact is made with the wall or contact is made with the floor. It is a male conquest, sometimes, over the confines of the straight-back chair. In some societies this was duly recognized without moral disapproval, and straight-back chairs were equipped with “tippers,” appliances added to the legs that allowed the male to more evenly balance the chair when it was tipped back on two legs. Renaissance Revival Parlor Set
 These two chairs from a Renaissance Revival parlor set, circa 1875, illustrate the differences in gender seating of the period. The gentleman’s chair (LEFT) has a high back, a wide seat and padded arm rests. The lady’s chair (RIGHT) has a lower, narrower but stylistically identical back, the same skirt and the same legs but has only hip rests in place of the padded armrests. Image courtesy Turkey Creek Auction, Citra, FL. But it was not in feminine order to “tip” a chair. This was a masculine privilege, and no Victorian lady would attempt it. But there was an answer: the rocking chair. The rocking chair came along in the 18th century and generally was relegated to the sick and infirm. By the mid-19th century it had been adopted as informal seating for women. However, it was never seen, at least initially, in the parlor. The rocker solved all kinds of problems for women, starting with the fact that was actually comfortable, a rarity for most Victorian females and for most Victorian furniture. It also solved the problem of movement. A lady could gently rock back and forth without creating too much of a disturbance and without drawing too much attention. The chair itself also seemed to fit the psyche of the time. While the male wrestled with a straight-frame chair to overcome its boundaries in the search for comfort, the female could “go with the flow” of the rocking chair. It was doing exactly what she was wanted it to do, exactly what it was designed to do – and it required very little effort to achieve that pleasant state. How refreshing and how feminine. Gradually rockers became known as female chairs, and few men, at least in the 19th century, sat in them. It is somewhat of a conundrum that Abraham Lincoln was ensconced in a Grecian-style rocker when he was shot at Ford’s Theater. Only when rockers made it to the front porch for very casual sitting did men learn to enjoy the rocker. So the dining room was a male room with female compromises, and the parlor was neutral territory with designated gender-based seating. Where did the woman rule outright? The bedroom, of course. Typical 19th-century bedroom suites contained a bed, a chest of drawers, a mirrored vanity and an armless nursing or sewing chair, i.e., a lady’s chair. There was nothing typically male in the typical bedroom. Has anything changed?
|
| Last Updated on Monday, 11 May 2009 10:06 |
Fred Taylor is a freelance writer based in central Florida, who earned both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in finance from the University of Florida. While he is perhaps better known in his role as a nationally syndicated columnist on the subject of antique furniture, he is interested in almost all things related to Florida. He has covered many auctions both inside and outside the Sunshine State for leading antiques trade publications. Fred and his wife, Gail, love to travel Florida’s highways and byways on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
