Stool (seat)

The origins of stools are obscure, but they are known to be one of the earliest forms of wooden furniture. The ancient Egyptians used stools as seats, and later as footstools. The diphros was a four-leg stool in Ancient Greece, produced in both fixed and folding versions. Percy Macquoid claims that the turned stool was introduced from Byzantium by the Varangian Guard, and thus through Norse culture into Europe, reaching England via the Normans. In the medieval period, seating consisted of benches, stools, and the very rare examples of throne-like chairs as an indication of status. The stools had two forms: the boarded or Gothic Three-legged stools are extant from the 17th century, as is an illustration of an early turned stool of this period. One of the uses for three-legged stools is for farm workers engaged in milking cows. Later developments in the 17th century produced the joined stool, using the developing techniques of joinery to produce a larger box-like stool from the minimum of timber, by joining long thin spindles and rails together at right angles. == Royal stools ==

Several kingdoms and chiefdoms in Africa had and still have traditions of using stools in the place of chairs as thrones. One of the most famous of them, the Golden Stool of the Asantehene in Ghana, was the cause of one of the most famous events in the history of colonized Africa, the so-called War of the Golden Stool between the British and the Ashanti. == Backstools ==

The backstool represents an intermediate step between the development of the stool and the chair. A simple three-legged turned stool would have its rear leg extended outwards and a crossways pad attached. Backstools were always three-legged, with a central rear leg. Turned backstools led in turn to the development of the three-legged turned chair, where the backrest was widened and supported by diagonal spindles leading down to extensions of the front legs. In time these diagonal supports became larger, higher and more level, leading to the turned armchair design. Such backstools developed from around 1900, with the advent of modern materials such as bentwood and later the bent steel tube of Marcel Breuer's work at the Bauhaus. These isotropic materials no longer depended on the shapes of traditional joinery, as developed for earlier stools, and so strong backs could be attached arbitrarily, without relying on particular leg placements for strength. ==Variations==

• folding step stool • kick stool or kick step stool ==Gallery==

File:Kruk in rood geschilderde bakeliet, achthoekig. - INDUS V37899-003.JPG|Stool in red painted bakelite, supported by four chrome legs, from the Vyncoluxe series by the manufacturer Vynckier in Ghent. Collection Museum of Industry Ghent File:Handmade Chair.jpg|Handmade Stool from Nepal File:Irish Pub stool from 1910, Cork, Ireland.jpeg|Pub stool from 1910, Ireland File:Svarvad taburett med broderad sitts - Hallwylska museet - 108430.tif|Early modern stool made of wood File:Old-table-and-chairs.jpg|Table and stools from Bulgaria File:Tabouret pour traire.JPG|Milking stool File:Tutankhamun’s stool 2020.jpg|Tutankhamun's stool from his tomb File:Mezzadro 1957.jpg|Mezzadro stool designed by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Zanotta (1957) File:Sella di Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni.jpg|Sella stool by Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni for Zanotta (1957) File:Kruk geproduceerd door Vynckier in Gent - INDUS V37899-007.JPG|Stool in white painted bakelite, from the Supra Luxe series by the manufacturer Vynckier in Ghent. Collection Museum of Industry Ghent. == See also ==