Folding Chairs

It started so innocently, I wanted to reproduce a simple folding chair (stool, really). Having seen some examples around and vaguely recall seeing some medieval illustrations, I set out to see what we knew about this form and whether the reproductions floating around the SCA were anything like a period chair.

My early research turned up disturbing results. There were all kinds of medieval folding chairs alright, but they were all called "folding chairs" in the local language. No distinction seems to have been made on the finer points of chair features. All I wanted, initially, was small folding stools. But, collecting images and information, I couldn't use the source's designation for the item (if there even was one) to store and sort the info.

One thing lead to another and I decided to create a taxonomy that I could use to sort the images and information I found into meaningful categories. That document was a precursor to the folding stools I eventually built this winter and is something I will continue to gather info and expand on at least until I've gotten tired of making folding chairs.

At this time (Mar 2020) the Word document runs to 42 pages with over 100 images of medieval folding chairs of one sort or another. No one is going to read that tome, so I've decided to wiki-ify it here on the off chance that if you have some interest in one type of chair or other you'll at least see a collection of information about that form.