Let’s talk about chairs. It’s crazy what you can learn when thinking about something as simple as a chair.

When they started to formulate chairs in the Egyptian period, chairs were very ornate and to own a chair, you had to be a member of the hierarchy or a pharaoh or something like that. Common chairs as we know them now didn’t exist.

Chairs didn’t really come into play until the Renaissance period.

From the 1800s and forward, chairs became more tailored to those who used them.

The earlier chairs were basically 10-12 inches off the floor because back then, society was very petite. If you look at that vintage chair in a museum, you’ll notice early chairs were small and fragile.

The other thing that changed is the application of wood.

It used to be a big thing to have a cane-seated chair, but those went out of favor as our body structures evolved.

No longer were we petite and comfortable at 12 inches off the floor, now we’re looking for a 24-inch seat height—and we started breaking the cane seats and you had to find somebody to replace them at 70 cents or $1.10 per hold because that’s what it cost, only to have the kids or Aunt Gloria plop down and break them again, so we graduated to solid seats.

In the agriculturally-dominant society, plank chairs became popular due to the solid seat, which is what you needed for kids and the family.

And then, if you were really well off, not only did you have a plank-seated chair, you had a plank-seated chair that had decorative paint, and boy, if you had a set of plank-seated decorated chairs, you were in hog heaven!

It’s fascinating to think about how chairs have changed and what inspired the changes.

From a kitchen table chair to bar stools to a living room chair or desk chair, most people now take for granted that their home will be full of chairs.

Perhaps that’s why there’s been such a transition in not only the design of chairs, but the value of chairs over the years.

In today’s auction market chairs don’t bring very much.

That’s what makes auction a great place to acquire a chair. You’ll find a variety of styles to fit every décor or need and usually at a great price–and that’s something you can bet your bottom dollar on!