Seating Arm Chairs & Lounge

A Ming scholar in his study, a chief on a carved seat in Cameroon: the armchair has always announced its occupant. Armchairs and lounge chairs come from China, India, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, the Congo, Syria, France and the United States. Chinese armchairs in elm and huanghuali follow the classical forms of the Ming scholar’s study. Chiefs’ chairs from the Senufo, Bamileke, Yoruba, Kuba, Mossi and Chokwe, and Oromo chairs from Ethiopia carved from a single block, were seats of rank. Syrian chairs are inlaid with mother-of-pearl in Damascene patterns; French Art Deco lounge chairs, American club chairs and leather writer’s chairs carry the European and American tradition. Contemporary Indore, Jaipur, Fez and Khartoum chairs translate those forms in leather, rattan and walnut.

A pair sets up a conversation in a living room; a single carved chief’s chair becomes sculpture. Leather softened with use, rattan with its woven light, hardwood rubbed smooth by hands. Sit down. Stay a while.