38 
THE 
House 
& Garden 
ANCESTOR OF THE CHAIR 
Furniture History Shows That the Stool Was Always in Fashion and 
Is in Vogue Today as a Hobby for Those Who Collect 
GARDNER TEALL 
A FRENCH wit once described a stool as 
“a piece of furniture somewhere between 
a chair and the floor.” 
\\’hether it was evolved from conscious imi¬ 
tation of Nature’s provision for man in the 
matter of resting facilities, or whether it had a 
more formal entry into histor}^ we do not know, 
but we can imaging its origin to have been 
in ages too remote for other than ingenious 
antiquarian speculation. 
The chair, as we know, is merely a 
grown-up stool with a back to it. 
Ancient Evidence 
.Ancient Assyrian, Egyptian, Greek and 
Roman sculptural and medallic remains 
present evidence that the stool was a 
favorite article of furniture with the 
ancients. 
In the famous sculptured tablet of the 
Babylonian King Nabu-apluiddin, who 
reigned some 2,800 years ago, we find the 
king depicted as seated upon his throne, 
which seat of the mighty is shown to be 
without a back and, indeed, was very prob¬ 
ably a handsome stool of proper propor¬ 
tions for so august a purpose. 
The Greek monument from Kanthus, 
known as the Harpy Alonument and now 
in the British Museum shows us what 
must have been the form of a Greek stool 
seat as early as 520 B.C., but antedating 
this form by centuries were the Egyj)tian 
stools we see depicted in the ancient 
painted monuments of the land of the 
Pharaohs which have come down to us. 
As we examine these old records of 
the furniture of the ancients we are 
reminded that no object has been more 
constant in general form. The stool shown in 
the ancient bas-relief from the Villa Albani, 
Rome, depicting the legend of Leucotea and 
Bacchus, here illustrated, shows an excellent 
example of stool furniture devised in antiquity 
which has continued through succeeding cen¬ 
turies to exert an influence upon design. 
A familiar example of the use of stools is found in 
the New York home of Miss Elsie de Wolfe, where 
two stools of French design are placed before the fire 
I have often discovered that a stool-less 
house is lacking in one of the most attractive 
features of complete furnishing. I became the 
more thoroughly convinced of this when it fell 
to my happy lot to come upon a house whose 
owner had a hobby for collecting stools. 
Stools in the House 
There were stools of ever}- conceivable 
sort and of every period whence stools have 
survived, everything from the hassock and 
low footrest to sitting stools, only excepting 
those hideous nightmares that Uriah Heep 
must have spent hours upon, while culti¬ 
vating his humility, that species of long- 
legged stool that one know^s must haunt 
eveiy warehouse counting-room, a device 
likewise which seems admirably suited to 
the discomforts of our average post office 
interior. Barring such monstrosities as 
these, my host’s collection seemed extraor¬ 
dinarily complete. One must not imagine 
they were arranged in rows or piled in a 
room museum-wise. Instead every piece 
of furniture of this particular sort fitted 
intimately into the whole scheme of deco¬ 
ration. I do not think on entering any of 
the beautiful rooms there was any thought 
of an intrusion of stool furniture. Cer¬ 
tainly there were not more stools in any 
room than there should have been. That 
there were as many as there were impressed 
on me the fact that most of our houses are 
furnished with a disregard of the value of 
the stool as a decorative feature, and its 
great contribution to comfort is a thing 
that is as often overlooked. 
The Pilgrim Fathers may have been 
{Continued on page 78) 
English oak stool of about 
1625-1640 
English oak stool of about 
1625-1640 
As a completing accessory 
to the furnishing of this 
Louis Seize drawing room 
have been used low stools 
of the period 
