This thesis places curvilinear chairs in the larger history of design by recounting the cycles of art history between orderly rectilinearity and natural or organic curvilinearity. Originating in Lancaster, England in 1822, spreading to Bristol and New York in the 1820s and 1830s, this English design successfully evolved into a globalized chair in a variety of different forms. It peaked in the mid-to-late nineteenth century but has enjoyed a second revival and then a redesign in the twenty-first century. This study clarifies the confusion on the date and place of origin as well as its etymology and places the curvilinear chair in its correct historical context, at the end of the Neoclassical period. This is accomplished by plotting the early emergence of the chair's prototype within the transition between the Neoclassical and Rococo periods. The study is able to document the date of emergence of the chair by reviewing preceding furniture forms to determine whether the chair is a revival style or a new form and examining daybooks and furniture pattern books. It determines that the American versions of the curvilinear chair appeared earlier than previously believed and were influenced by the English firm Gillows & Sons, rather than previously suggested French sources.
