Period correct (1750-1840) camp chairs?

[Armando]

I'd like to throw together some period correct camp chairs for my family for the next rendezvous.

Anyone have a good suggestion for plans, diagrams, instructions, suggestions, etc?

 

[Rifleman1776]

There have been chairs of many designs all through early history. But finding one that is light and easy to carry is difficult. You will always make the purists have fits. I made a slide together ( some call the 'crikets') when the back started giving me problems. To some it may not be 'authentic' but it gives the old back much needed rest and fits in with the scene. I have a floppy disk showing many old style chairs. Most are indoor 'parlor' types. What might have been seen in military camps would probably have been frames with canvas seats and backs.

 

[Coot]

I'd like to throw together some period correct camp chairs for my family for the next rendezvous.

Anyone have a good suggestion for plans, diagrams, instructions, suggestions, etc?

If you portray a family relocating to new grounds, then you could use so of your household furnishings that you were taking with you - real chairs - ladderback or windsors. If you are looking for folding chairs, not much luck. Stools, yes - google "George Washington's Camp Stools" for plans. His were mahogany or walnut with dressy seats but a less wealthy man could use ash and hemp canvas.

 

[Artificer]

Along the lines of what Coot wrote, when we did events at Historic Fort Wayne in Ft. Wayne, IN, these events were up to and including the War of 1812. One reenactor MADE SURE he brought "Mother's Rocking Chair" to each event. It was period correct with a cane seat and was the chair his wife sat in around camp. Completely historically correct as they normally portrayed a family who was moving further westward or came close to the Fort during "NA Troubles," and she would not leave it behind in case their cabin got burned to the ground.

Gus

 

[hawkeye2]

Period correct, historically correct and rendezvous don't always belong in the same discussion. A lot of rendezvous can be quite liberal on what they tolerate and I've seen some pretty ingenious equipment over the years that never existed in the day but looked neat. I have one of those slide together chairs, handy and comfortable but non-authentic. They are accepted at most places though. A number of years ago there was a major shift in the earth with the ground moving further away. I didn't notice it at first but I eventually began to notice that it was much harder to climb back to the upright and it hurt a lot more to fall all that extra distance so it did happen. I have a nice folding wood and canvas chair which is 100% authentic and comfortable. I suggest you look at military camp furniture (Civil War & earlier) for ideas and I don't believe one would be any harder to make than most other rendezvous furniture. An old friend, long gone, used to bring a well worn authentic ladderback chair to reenactments and was the only one I ever saw do that. It got a lot of attention and a lot of comments ,all positive as I remember, from the public and other reenactors.

 

[Grenadier1758]

Smoke and Fire Company has patterns for period correct stools and a blanket box.
https://www.smoke-fire.com/?s=furniture&id=m

The ladder back chairs and Windsor chairs are correct, The ladder back chairs can be made into a suitable pack frame.

 

[Einsiedler]

I use a ladderback that I put a new woven seat in myself. I wove it out of some kind of natural webbing. Looks like jute. I cut off about 16" off the back. It was one of those real tall ones. Now it easier to use in my wedge tent. Still has two rungs in the back!
This summer I picked up another just like my original. It was free because woven bottom was all rotted out. Wood is great. I’m going to stick a deerhide bottom in this one. Hair-on rawhide.

Leave the tail hanging on the backside!

 

[Nyckname]

Get a log maybe three, three and a half feet tall, and about as wide as you are. Carve one half of the length into a back support.

Hopefully, no one will mistake it for firewood.

 

[tenngun]

Military had wagons to carry stuff around, and folks moving on to the frontier might have packed up a chair or two in a wagon or cart, in general a chair in camp is not correct, but.....
On warships you couldn’t have stuff getting hit by cannon balls and flying around your ship. So every day a ship cleared for action and officers stools had to fold up and get stowed below and out of the way.
An eighteenth century folding ships chair may be the trick. Easy to pack in your modern transportation, correct to the time period, if not likely to have been found in a frontier camp.

 

[Grenadier1758]

I did a search on the Forum for "Camp Chairs" and I found this link to a couple that include beds.
http://www.livinghistoryshop.com/category/18th-century-furniture/

I had a similar stool when I was in Boy Scouts. Its still original, The seat has been replaced at least 3 times and most of the wood at least once.

What's great about my camp stools is that they appear so rickety (because they are) that no one else will sit in them.

 

[Artificer]

Military had wagons to carry stuff around, and folks moving on to the frontier might have packed up a chair or two in a wagon or cart, in general a chair in camp is not correct, but.....
On warships you couldn’t have stuff getting hit by cannon balls and flying around your ship. So every day a ship cleared for action and officers stools had to fold up and get stowed below and out of the way.
An eighteenth century folding ships chair may be the trick. Easy to pack in your modern transportation, correct to the time period, if not likely to have been found in a frontier camp.

There used to be pictures on the web that showed a combination wood/canvas chair WITH side arm rests that was from a British Warship circa 1808 or so. It looked as comfortable as modern folding "director's" chairs (though designed differently) and just the ticket for those with bad backs, but it is at best downright doubtful one would have seen one in a frontier camp.

Same thing for mid/late 18th century British Army Officers' folding "campaign" chairs, which seems to have been rare even for British Officers here during the AWI, let alone a frontier camp.

Other ways to "explain" a period "non folding" chair in camp would be locals allowed others to borrow them or they were taken from local homes/cabins during war time. This doesn't make them easier to pack in one's vehicle, but at least it provides more plausible explanations for having them in some camps.

Gus

 

[waksupi]

What are known as director's chairs have been around for hundreds of years, and are much more correct than many things people use.

 

[smo]

I don’t think these are period correct, could be , maybe.

But I’ve haven't been kicked out of a rendezvous with them yet....

Sorry I don’t have any plans or drawings for them, I pulled measurements from the one on the right and used a little heavier material ...

Field tested up to 300 pounds.... lol