We sometimes like to do "living history" re-enactment as a family at Old Missouri Town 1855. But there are precious few places to sit that are more comfortable than the ground. So a while ago I started doing research on chairs of the period. Of course I could have made a Windsor or Ladderback chair, but I wanted something a bit more compact. What I found was a huge lack of information on furniture between the Revolution and the Civil War. I did eventually find a couple of things and one picture.
Campaign Chair.jpg
From this picture I could tell that this was a folding chair, but I couldn't picture how it folded since the arms seemed to be in the way. So, I built a couple of mockups just using thin strips of pine from 2x4s. When I finally got the geometry right, I was delighted to see how ingenious this design was.
I found a source for air dried White Oak, built a steam chamber (I'd never attempted steam bending before), and jumped right in. I thought I'd share the results:
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The exact geometry of this chair is pretty tricky and unfortunately this particular chair is a bit too tall. I plan on making a few of these chairs so, I consider it a lesson learned, but overall I'm pretty pleased with the result.