A walnut Dante chair

Only five examples are known, two are in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

In paintings from the 17th century, important people were portrayed, both men and women, sitting on this stool. This can

also be seen in the paintings of Jan Steen.

He turns it into an ordinary piece of furniture, so to speak. This might give the impression that this was a fairly common

piece of furniture at the time. Yet this furniture is almost not mentioned in inventory descriptions from that time.

That this furniture, even then, was not common may be due to the fact that these are difficult chairs to make. Everything

about this seat is bent. Cutting all the parts out of a wide plank of wood, taking into account the running direction of the

wood grain in all the parts, requires a lot of craftsmanship.

The crosswise legs are held together by profiled rungs with a scalloped edge. 

The chair is folding.

These chairs were often covered with fabric, as seen in paintings by Jan Steen and others.

Netherlands, 1620-1630.

Literature:

Wonen in de gouden eeuw door Reinier Baarsen. Page 72 figure 63.

Noord-Nederlandse meubelen van renaissance tot vroege barok 1550-1670 door Loek van Aalst & Annigje Hofstede,

Hes & De Graaf Publishers, bladzijde 367.

Jan Steen, schilder en verteller. H. Perry Chapman, bladzijde 74, 146, 173 en 187.