Church chairs are one of the most important pieces in Church furniture. Today, you will find a variety of designs for a church chair although this was not really the case in the 17th century. Most of the churches as well as cathedrals prior to 1860 had chapel chairs or church pews in the apse. The main reason was that most of the churches during that era were in a run down or dilapidated state. Churches then had no money or budgets that could help them to enable repairs. Another reason was that the liturgy discouraged participation of congregations and their ideology was that more people can accommodated when standing instead of sitting.
Between the 17th century and the 19th Century, parish churches having church chairs and pews were subjected to pew rents, which had to be paid by the occupants. The rent was charged as a tax for getting the privilege of being able to sit on a church chair situated near the main aisle. Those who were unable to afford the pew charges had to make do by standing on the side aisles and galleries.
It was around the 1870's when changes started creeping in and social barriers started to disappear. Churches started encouraging greater participation by the congregations and this meant there was a higher requirement for seating arrangements and church furniture. Most of the chapel or church chairs were identical in shape and size. This also meant that the wood used for making the church chairs and stacking chairs had to be homogeneous throughout. As a result, almost 100 workers were involved in the production of the church chair and church pews.
One of the most important aspects was that the timber needed to match. Most of the churches during that era bought Beech, Elm, Oak and sometimes even American ash from specialized brokers for chair production. When the timber arrived at the workshop, it was kept in a hot-room so that the moisture content could be reduced by 10%. After the reduction in moisture content, the timber was planed and the various defects were taken out. The remaining timber was cut to specification and made ready for the finishing touches. This is how church chairs were manufactured couple of centuries back.
After machining the blanks or post hand turning, the church furniture was transferred to the assembly area and here the church chairs were assembled by hand-pressing or by using jigs. The joints in church pews, stack chairs and other church furniture were glued using urea formaldehyde glue. This glue was considered special as it created the perfect bond and increased the life of the furniture.
The struts of the church chairs were angled to provide strength to the struts. The legs of the chairs were also braced with glue to counteract some of the high-pressure that got created when people leaned back on the chairs. The angle or the curve was cut by a band saw or even by hand. On the other hand, an acid catalyst lacquer is used in the modern church chairs as finish. It is also considered as one of the hardest wearing finish as of date. In the earlier times, the church chairs were mostly oiled or waxed.
One of the most popular churches, the Basilica in Rome has a huge amount of space that can hold at least 90,000 people but there are not enough church chairs to accommodate everyone. When the Pope presides over for ceremonies, then only 11,500 people can be seated. The 11,500 church chairs have been placed strategically and directly in the view of the central altar.
In the early times, the church chair and church pews were being made by nomadic turners who were also known as 'bodgers'. The bodgers lived mostly in the village around High Wycombe. Historically speaking, the skilled labor required for making the church chair was acquired from industries handling production of spoons, bowls, and variety items. The same labor was applied for developing chairs for the church and this led to the formation of a group of skilled laborers who became part time turners.
The best quality church pews and chairs were being made in England at one point in time. In 1939, around 10,000 church furniture workers were employed with different manufacturers but by 1960 the number greatly reduced to 8000. Due to technological involvements a lot has changed in terms of the manufacturing of chairs and furniture for the church. Today, you can even buy church pews or stacking chairs over the internet, a market that no one ever thought could exist even in the early 20th century.
A few centuries ago, in the 1600's you may not have been likely to find chairs in all churches. If you did find seating, chances are good it would not have been in good shape because money was not readily available and churches often had their congregation stand rather than sit. Today, however, church chairs are a necessity. Very few people are likely to attend a church that doesn't give them somewhere to sit!
Frequently in the 1600s and 1700s, and even the 1800s, those churches that did have church chairs or pews for the congregation chose to rent that seating out, so in order to have a place to sit on Sunday, you paid for your family to have a pew or chairs reserved for them.
Unlike today, that means that your family could be the last ones in the door, but you would still have a place to sit while others who arrived before you may have had to stand. Obviously, if your family was financially well-off, you were more likely to have pew space, and less-wealthy families who could not afford it would have to stand.
Later, near the end of the 1800s, churches began to rethink their church chairs and seating arrangements. It became more important to offer pews or chairs to the congregation, and it was becoming more important to allow everyone a place to sit regardless of their ability to pay for the privilege.
Typically back then, and still today, church chairs and other church furniture is expected to match; that is, they should be made out of the same kind of wood. Today, that is not as difficult to accomplish as it was a few hundred years ago. Back then, building church chairs was time consuming and required the skill of many workers. It was also more difficult to get "matching trees" to have matching furniture.
Usually, a church would buy all the same type of lumber all at the same time to ensure that the wood would all be the same. So, once that was done, the church had wood but no stacking church chairs, regular church chairs, or pews. All they had was raw wood.
Once the lumber arrived, it was time to get the wood in the best possible shape for furniture making. It had to be put somewhere out of the elements and the best place was a place that could be heated so some of the natural wetness in the wood could evaporate and the woodworkers could work with wood that had been dried a little. Then, the wood had to be cut to the right size and any natural blemishes had to be removed. Then, the woodworkers could begin their skilled carving of the church chairs or pews.
They would carve out the individual pieces of the church furniture first; for example, they would make the legs and arms, then the seat, then the back. Once those were carved, all the pieces could be put together to form complete church chairs. They could be held in place with special types of glue and/or jigs.
It was important that the church furniture be finely crafted so that it would last a long time and also remain intact with its beautiful and pretty looks. So, you can see what a time-consuming and difficult task it used to be to make church furniture! To keep those church chairs looking their best, they needed to be waxed and/or oiled on a regular basis, as well, so upkeep was important also.
Today, most church furniture is manufactured by machine in factories, so it is less time-consuming and takes a smaller percentage of the church budget than it did a few hundred years ago. Some fine wooden church furniture is still oiled, but for the most part modern church chairs and pews have a lacquer coating or some other kind of wood finish that simply allows the furniture to be dusted to look its best.
As evidence of the difficulty in getting a lot of church chairs or pews in a church, you can look to St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The Basilica itself is huge, but the seating is very limited. That probably has to do with the complicated and time-consuming method of church chair building that was necessary several centuries ago.
Nowadays, it is not nearly so difficult to furnish a church. Church furniture is mass produced, and even if it is not, shipping of lumber and improvements in furniture making equipment have made the task of providing church furnishing so much easier. In fact, if you ever find yourself with the task of furnishing a church, you can probably get everything you need from the Internet. What could be simpler than that?
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Graciella Chairman has sinced written about articles on various topics from Home Management, Bird Flu and Flowers Delivery. Graciella Chairman is a designer based in Muenster Texas dedicated to providing churches, sanctuaries and temples with quality. Graciella Chairman's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.
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