Is the Klismos Chair the Most Ancient Piece of Furniture Still in Rotation?

""On these vases I saw furniture that was young, untouched by time," he later reflected on the lifestyle imagery of the classical period. "Vitality surged through this furniture.""

"He was contemplating the klismos, a sculptural chair with a curved backrest, woven seat, and tapered saber legs that swoop like apostrophes. In the images-now mostly found on funerary vessels, painted pottery, and bas-reliefs-sitters assume a relaxed posture, their hands often gliding to rest on the low back."

""Not a single chair like that survives," explains George Manginis, academic director of the Benaki Museum in Athens. "The earliest revivals we have are from the 18th and 19th century, when the klismos became fashionable with the discovery of ancient art." But some of those neoclassical tributes, rendering the style with squat, rather bulky proportions, miss the grace of their predecessors. (One exception is the fleet of klismos at Villa Kérylos, the Côte d'Azur Greek Revival home of French archaeologist Théodore Reinach.)"

T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings visited the British Museum in the 1930s and was captivated by fifth-century vessels depicting furniture. He perceived the images as showing young, vital furniture. The klismos is described as a sculptural chair with a curved backrest, woven seat, and tapered saber legs that swoop like apostrophes, with sitters in a relaxed posture touching the low back. No original klismos survives, and the earliest revivals date to the 18th and 19th centuries after the rediscovery of ancient art. Many neoclassical reproductions lack the original's grace; Villa Kérylos preserves a noted exception.

Read at Architectural Digest