Sedia Chiavarina

The Sedia Chiavarina — the Chiavari chair — is one of the most successful Italian design objects ever made, and it was invented here. The ladderback chair with a rush seat, elegantly simple in construction and remarkably light, was created in 1807 and has been in continuous production ever since. Several workshops in Chiavari still make it by hand, and the chair can be seen in various artisan shops along the Caruggio Dritto.

The chair has never gone out of fashion. Versions of it have been made by Cassina and other Italian design houses, but the original family workshops in Chiavari maintain the traditional craft production. Visiting one of the workshops — some of which are open to walk-ins — gives a useful demonstration of how much skill goes into a deceptively simple object.

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A story
The chair was designed in 1807 by Giuseppe Gaetano Descalzi for the Bourbon court of Naples, which had commissioned a lighter alternative to the heavy French Empire chairs then fashionable. It weighed less than a kilogram, could be stacked, and was so cheap to produce that it became the standard chair of cafes, homes, and public spaces across Europe. Over 50 million Chiavarinas have been made.