Xavier de Maistre in an armchair, displaying his “book of discoveries”. A miniature by Veyssier from Jean Tardieu’s “pretty little edition of the ‘Voyage’”, published in 1860.
Featured on PDR in the essay Postures of Transport: Sex, God, and Rocking Chairs
What if chairs had the ability to shift our state of consciousness, transporting the imagination into distant landscapes and ecstatic experiences, both religious and erotic? In an essay about the British and American fascination with rocking chairs and upholstery springs in the 19th century, Hunter Dukes discovers how simple furniture technologies allowed armchair travelers to explore worlds beyond their own.