Steel side chair in the “Spring” style. It features a removable seat and back made from curved strips of steel. The seat is in a radiating pattern, which curves at the outer edge and is bolted to the ring of the seat frame. The back features vertical strips of steel curved at either end and bolted to stretchers across the top and bottom of the ring frame. The legs are formed from rods of steel, which terminate in pad feet, and “U” shaped stretchers connect all four legs at the midpoint. “Spring” chairs, also called “Pillow” chairs have frames made from bent steel or iron rods and curved strips of tempered sheet steel for the seats and backs. The steel straps would flex at the curved ends creating a “springy” effect that gave support as well as cushioning. This design was considered a great innovation because it provided comfort without the need for cushions. Armchairs, side chairs, and tables were produced as sets intended to be arranged in groups outdoors on patios, verandahs, or lawns. Technological advances in the nineteenth century increased the versatility of steel and made new forms of outdoor seating possible. Bent steel seats and backs for garden seats were first patented by French designer, Francois A. Carre, in 1866. The durability and strength of the steel, as well as the flexibility and greater comfort from its construction was seen as an improvement over cast-iron and woven wire furnishings. These pieces were also promoted for being lighter weight and easy to move. Considered innovative in its own time, various models of curved sheet steel strip seating remained popular in both Europe and America into the twentieth century, especially in the 1920s. This adaptation of Carre’s pattern was most popular from the 1920s to 1940s in America.
“Spring” chairs, also called “Pillow” chairs have frames made from bent steel or iron rods and curved strips of tempered sheet steel for the seats and backs. The steel straps would flex at the curved ends creating a “springy” effect that gave support as well as cushioning. This design was considered a great innovation because it provided comfort without the need for cushions. Armchairs, side chairs, and tables were produced as sets intended to be arranged in groups outdoors on patios, verandahs, or lawns. Technological advances in the nineteenth century increased the versatility of steel and made new forms of outdoor seating possible. Bent steel seats and backs for garden seats were first patented by French designer, Francois A. Carre, in 1866. The durability and strength of the steel, as well as the flexibility and greater comfort from its construction was seen as an improvement over cast-iron and woven wire furnishings. These pieces were also promoted for being lighter weight and easy to move. Considered innovative in its own time, various models of curved sheet steel strip seating remained popular in both Europe and America into the twentieth century, especially in the 1920s. This adaptation of Carre’s pattern was most popular from the 1920s to 1940s in America.
Technological advances in the nineteenth century increased the versatility of steel and made new forms of outdoor seating possible. Bent steel seats and backs for garden seats were first patented by French designer, Francois A. Carre, in 1866. The durability and strength of the steel, as well as the flexibility and greater comfort from its construction was seen as an improvement over cast-iron and woven wire furnishings. These pieces were also promoted for being lighter weight and easy to move. Considered innovative in its own time, various models of curved sheet steel strip seating remained popular in both Europe and America into the twentieth century, especially in the 1920s. This adaptation of Carre’s pattern was most popular from the 1920s to 1940s in America.
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Garden furnishings, also called outdoor or patio furnishings, are specifically designed for outdoor use. They are typically made of weather-resistant materials such as metal, stone, wood, wicker, and artificial stone. Cast-iron was the most popular material for garden furnishings and accessories from the mid-nineteenth to the early-twentieth century. This was in part due to systems of mass production developed in the Industrial Revolution that allowed outdoor furniture to be readily available and affordable to the public. Throughout the nineteenth century, as leisure activities increased, materials diversified, and technology was embraced, garden furnishings came to be regarded as domestic amenities and reflected changing styles. Outdoor furnishings, such as settees, chairs, fountains, urns, and tables were essential to fashionably appointed lawns, conservatories, parks, cemeteries, and gardens in America.
The garden in the nineteenth century, typical of Victorian style, tended to be excessively ornamental and complex, combining colors, textures, and materials through plants and garden ornaments. Garden furnishings, such as urns, plant stands, tables, and seating, became essential to the overall design. As an extension of the house, the garden required furniture, and outdoor seating found its way onto balconies, verandahs, and porches as well as across lawns and parks. Garden chairs typically had three to four legs, with designs adapted from the most popular styles for garden settees and benches. Armchairs were frequently made with matching side chairs, as well as benches, settees, tables, and consoles all in the same pattern as a suite or furniture for the garden. Designs for garden furniture followed the Victorian taste for eclectic styles and borrowed Classical, Rustic, Gothic, Rococo, Renaissance, and Oriental motifs; or they were chosen to blend with their natural surroundings in Rustic, animal, or botanical forms. Chairs and other furnishings were strategically placed as the focal point or an accessory to create a specific feeling for a setting. Garden furnishings were used on porches and verandahs, as well as throughout the garden, to extend the architecture of the house to the grounds, providing a link between art and nature, manmade and organic. Cast-iron, wrought-iron, and wirework chairs were mostly for use in the garden although some designs were suited for indoor use as well.
