From Stools to Statements: Iconic Chair Design on Display at Christie’s
Christie's exhibition, '50 Chairs at Christie’s', explores chair design as functional furniture and a storytelling medium, bridging past and present through form and innovation.
In October 2026, Christie's London unveiled 50 Chairs at Christie’s, an exhibition chronicling over 150 years of chair design. This display transforms the chair into a canvas for ingenuity. "A chair is never just a chair," says Amelia Hartley, curator of the exhibition and head of Christie’s 20th and 21st Century Design department. "It’s a microcosm of material culture—a sculptural object that reflects its time, its maker and its user."
The show opens with a Shaker ladder-back chair from 1830, sourced from a New York collector. Its simplicity anchors the exhibition’s thesis: restraint in form speaks louder than ornamentation. The seat, woven with rush, is fragile yet intact—its endurance reflects the Shaker ethos of minimalism and functionality. Each piece tells a story, inviting viewers to consider the intersection of design and daily life.
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