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The Chiavari chair, also known as the Chiavarina, or Tiffany chair, is a wooden chair of
The chair is designed with each component made for the specific stresses it will carry. Descalzi designed a slot system for the construction and a system to tie the strips of the purple willow which form the seat of the chair directly to the frame.
The timbers originally used by Descalzi were wild cherry and
The Chiavari chair, also known as the Chiavarina, or Tiffany chair, is a wooden chair of Liguria
Liguria (; lij, Ligûria ; french: Ligurie) is a Regions of Italy, region of north-western Italy; its Capital city, capital is Genoa. Its territory is crossed by the Alps and the Apennine Mountains, Apennines Mountain chain, mountain range and is ...
n design.F. Casoni, J. Casoni, Le sedie leggere di Chiavari, De Ferrari, Genova 2011.
History
The Chiavarina was created in 1807 by acabinetmaker
A cabinet is a case or cupboard with shelves and/or drawers for storing or displaying items. Some cabinets are stand alone while others are built in to a wall or are attached to it like a medicine cabinet. Cabinets are typically made of wood (so ...
from Chiavari
Chiavari (; lij, Ciävai ) is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, in Italy. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It is situated near the river Entella.
History
Pre-Roman and Roman Era
A pre-Roman necropolis, which dates ...
on the northwestern Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
coast, Giuseppe Gaetano Descalzi. At the invitation of the President of the Economic Society of Chiavari, the Marquis Stefano Rivarola, Descalzi reworked some chairs in the French Empire style
The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...
, simplifying the decorative elements and lightening the structural elements.
The chair was a success and soon many factories opened in Chiavari and surrounding towns. When Gaetano Descalzi died in 1855, about 600 workers were making Chiavari chairs. The chair was praised by Charles Albert of Savoy
Charles Albert (; 2 October 1798 – 28 July 1849) was the King of Sardinia from 27 April 1831 until 23 March 1849. His name is bound up with the first Italian constitution, the Albertine Statute, and with the First Italian War of Independence ...
, Napoleon III
Napoleon III (Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was the first President of France (as Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte) from 1848 to 1852 and the last monarch of France as Emperor of the French from 1852 to 1870. A neph ...
, and by the sculptor Antonio Canova
Antonio Canova (; 1 November 1757 – 13 October 1822) was an Italian Neoclassical sculptor, famous for his marble sculptures. Often regarded as the greatest of the Neoclassical artists,. his sculpture was inspired by the Baroque and the cla ...
.P. A. Lattarulo, ''Gaetano Descalzi, la sua "chiavarina", i suoi continuatori'', Tipografia Colombo, Chiavari 2005, p. 51.
The success of the Chiavarina declined following the introduction of the Austrian chairs of Michael Thonet
Michael Thonet (2 July 1796, Boppard – 3 March 1871, Vienna) was a German-Austrian cabinet maker, known for the invention of bentwood furniture.
Career
Thonet was the son of the master tanner Franz Anton Thonet of Boppard. Following a ca ...
which were mass-produced, less expensive, and consisting of few elements easily assembled, and in the second half of the twentieth century, following competition from industrial production. The architect and designer Gio Ponti
Giovanni "Gio" Ponti ( ͡ʒo18 November 1891 – 16 September 1979) was an Italian architect, industrial designer, furniture designer, artist, teacher, writer and publisher.
During his career, which spanned six decades, Ponti built more than a ...
was inspired by the structural system of the Chiavari chair for his Superleggera chair of 1955.E. Morteo, ''Grande atlante del design dal 1850 ad oggi'', Electa, Milano 2008.
Features
The chair is designed with each component made for the specific stresses it will carry. Descalzi designed a slot system for the construction and a system to tie the strips of the purple willow which form the seat of the chair directly to the frame.
The timbers originally used by Descalzi were wild cherry and maple
''Acer'' () is a genus of trees and shrubs commonly known as maples. The genus is placed in the family Sapindaceae.Stevens, P. F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008 nd more or less continuously updated since h ...
, which were added to beech
Beech (''Fagus'') is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to temperate Europe, Asia, and North America. Recent classifications recognize 10 to 13 species in two distinct subgenera, ''Engleriana'' and ''Fagus''. The ''Engl ...
and ash
Ash or ashes are the solid remnants of fires. Specifically, ''ash'' refers to all non-aqueous, non-gaseous residues that remain after something burns. In analytical chemistry, to analyse the mineral and metal content of chemical samples, ash ...
, all of them from inland forests in Italy.
See also
*Chiavari
Chiavari (; lij, Ciävai ) is a comune (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, in Italy. It has about 28,000 inhabitants. It is situated near the river Entella.
History
Pre-Roman and Roman Era
A pre-Roman necropolis, which dates ...
* Chair
A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vari ...
* Sedia di Chiavari
References
{{ReflistBibliography
* A Montagni, L. Pessa, ''L'arte della Sedia a Chiavari'' (catalogue of an exhibition held at the Palazzo Rocca in Chiavari), Sagep, Genova, 1985. * P. A. Lattarulo, ''Gaetano Descalzi, la sua "Chiavarina", i suoi continuatori'', Tipografia Colombo, Chiavari 2005. * F. Casoni, J. Casoni, ''Le sedie leggere di Chiavari'', De Ferrari, Genova 2011. Chairs