Seating Furniture

In Ashanti legend, a golden stool came down from the sky for Osei Tutu, and seating has carried weight ever since. Antique seating crosses Africa, Asia and beyond. Chinese yokeback and armchair forms in elm and hardwood sit beside Indian chairs from Indore and Indonesian teak benches. From Cameroon come Bamileke spider stools carved with the earth-spider motif and leopard stools of the Grassfields; from Ghana, Ashanti stools. Senufo stools and daybeds from Ivory Coast, Nupe and Yoruba stools from Nigeria, Lobi three-legged stools from Burkina Faso, Baga seats from Guinea, Kuba chairs from the Congo and Oromo and Jimma chairs from Ethiopia, carved from one block of wood, show the range of forms. Qashqai kilim-covered pieces come from Iran.

Generations of use leave a deep patina. A carved stool works as a side table, a plant stand or a bed-end seat; a lone chair by a window is sculpture that happens to hold you.