Furniture Part (Chair)

Part of a chair commonly used in the construction of simple chairs from the Middle Kingdom onwards. There are many examples illustrated on stelae from the Middle Kingdom. The back support, which would have extended from the leg, has been broken and lost. But it clearly shows that the back support would have been of smaller cross-section than the chair leg. This you would expect to find on such a chair. The seat rails were mortised into the legs in a staggered formation. The back seat rails being higher from the ground than the side rails. Another important feature is that the stretchers below the seat only connect the back legs together. This is of an identical construction to the complete chair preserved in the British Museum (EA 2479). As with that chair it is not unreasonable to suggest that this chair would have also had a woven string seat. Seems to be from the same chair at 1973.1.582c. CONDITION NOTE (1998): Surface dirt. Wellcome Historical Medical Museum accessio no. 17377. Purchased at Sotheby's, London, 1922 (MacGregor collection). Rev. William MacGregor collection no. 1798.