Know Your Chairs: The Peacock Chair

The origin of the chair for this installation of Know Your Chairs is a little murky and not easily traced to a single source. The classic wicker Peacock Chair has ancestors across Asia with elements and similar shapes being woven in wicker and rattan for much of the 1800s. Extant drawings show rounded bases and seat backs, but it wasn't until 1914 that the first documented photograph of the Peacock Chair was taken. A female inmate in the Bilibid Prison in Manila is shown sitting in one and it is known that prisoners at this prison made chairs and other articles of furniture for export and that could be bought by visiting tourists. This late-stage-Victorian/Edwardian period fell in love with the Peacock Chair which would frequently be placed in a hothouse-like garden room or solarium, where this wicker throne-like chair blended in with its surroundings of parlor palms and orchids, plants cultivated for their exotic appeal. The chair seemed to dovetail nicely into Art Nouveau and into the 20s somewhat.

The chair fell out of favor in the 30s with the rise of Art Deco (previously here) and Streamline Moderne (previously here), but came back in popularity in the 60s and 70s where it found a home in a few new genres. It fit well with the hippie Flower Power culture of the time period, feeling like a piece of furniture that was both organic and ethnic. Meanwhile in a separate cultural moment in 1967, the Black Panther Party's founder and Minister of Defense, Huey Newton had his portrait taken seated in a Peacock Chair holding a spear and rifle, flanked by traditional African shields, all on a zebra rug. It was visually arresting and provocative image, and the chair came to be associated with the Black Power movement. It even showed up as Morticia Addams' chair of choice on the televisions show "The Addams Family" and as a prop for m any celebrity portraits of the time.

Dr. Huey P. Newton, photo by Blair Stapp
(Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of
African American History and Culture)

The cast of "The Addams Family"

Al DiMeola album cover

Cher

Dolly Parton

Julio Iglesias album cover

A pair of Peacock chairs in the Manhattan apartment of fashion designer Arnold Scaasi
Photo from Jan/Feb 1977 issue of Architectural Digest

Now the chair has come back around for a revival of sorts and can found in a variety of design schemes... but clearly works best with a sort of natural, tropical, or Bohemian sense.

Photo by Brave Boutique Ltd

Happy designing!