Publisher's Synopsis
For the first time, this anthology is dedicated to the early days of baby armchairs in Europe. It contains seven articles by international researchers who deal with the history of the introduction and establishment of armchairs in various European centers of power. Carrying chairs are fascinating objects that elude conventional categorizations in many ways. On the one hand, they can be assigned to the furniture area - at least in their simplest design - but on the other hand they are also a means of transport. In a simple, robust design, armchairs were inexpensive everyday vehicles in city traffic that could be rented for short distances. In precious furnishings, on the other hand, they were courtly ceremonial objects, which eminently symbolized social differences of the civil society: representatives of the upper class were transported in their palaces or on the streets of the city by servants dressed in costly liveries, rose above the unclean ground and were rapt symbolically the common people. The focus of the contributions is the history of baby armchairs at the papal court, in Genoa, in the Spanish monarchy, at the viceroyal court of Naples, at the courts of the Austrian Habsburgs, at the Bavarian court and in France.
