The primary purpose of a chair is to be comfortable to sit on – nothing is worse than fidgety guests!

Thereafter, proportion is extremely important: a beautifully drawn, mid 18th century wing armchair with curved out-swept wings and generous, padded scrolled arms, a camel-back top and a very good rake (the angle of the back) above well drawn legs and stretchers is infinitely preferable to a straight-backed, mean armed, hard seated version above clumsy legs. This, of course, would apply to all types of chairs – dining, Windsors and so on.