On Tue, 30 Nov 1999, Chris Baggs wrote:
> A colleague and I have been debating reading chairs.
...
> Our discussion actually centred however on how the reader sat in such a
> chair. Did they sit the opposite way round to the way one normally sits
> in a chair, so there was clearly no back support, or did the reader
> kneel on the padded part of the sit, in a way similar to a prie-dieu.
> Does anyone know of any illustrations of such furniture, or perhaps of a
> description of one in use?
No illustrations or description, but the two such chairs in the upper
library at Queen's College, Oxford, are definitely most comfortable when
sat on facing the book rest, rather than being kneeled on. They have arms
which you can rest your elbows on, and from the design of the chair it is
quite clear that you are meant to sit on them that way round.
Matthew Phillips
Assistant Librarian
Christ Church Library
Oxford
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