Seating Dining & Side Chairs

In Ming China a chair was joined without a single nail, and the habit lasted. Dining and side chairs begin with antique Chinese examples: yoke-back side chairs with rattan inset seats, chairs with burl panels and pierced splats, elmwood forms descended from Ming designs. Ethiopian Jimma chairs, carved by Oromo craftsmen from a single block of wood, sit low behind a tall, slightly raked back. Kuba chairs from the Congo, Chokwe chairs with figures carved along the rungs, and seats of the Bamileke, Senufo, Dogon, Lobi and Dinka carry the carving traditions of Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mali, Burkina Faso and Sudan, while Dayak seats come from the forests of Borneo. Contemporary dining chairs in leather, cowhide, oak and mahogany complete the range.

Around a long walnut table, mismatched antique side chairs read like conversation rather than a set. A single dark, adze-marked Jimma chair holds a library wall alone. Matching sets are for people with fewer stories.