Recently I sent my mom a postcard of the Colonial Williamsburg Thomas Jefferson relaxing in a campeche chair on the porch at Poplar Forest.
We’ve also seen it at Monticello.
And we’ve seen the Colonial Williamsburg cabinet makers are kept busy with commissions for campeche chairs.
ANCIENT ROME
Related to Ancient Rome, which the kids and I are currently studying, I decided to do a deep dive into this popular chair.
The Latin word for chair or seat is “sella (sing.), sellae (pl.).
The Roman name for this chair is sella curulis.
Also called a chair of state, it was a symbol of power.
ETRUSCANS
Apparently, the Romans got this chair from the Etruscans.
Something the kids and I have learned about the Romans, is anything they did not get from Greece, they probably got from the Etruscans.
ANCIENT EGYPT
Before even the Etruscans, though, Ancient Egypt had a similar x-frame chair.
I read somewhere that Greece likely had this chair too!
Only the important leaders got to sit in this chair, from consuls of the early Roman Republic to the emperors of the Empire.
As this chair traveled to the outlying lands of the empire, lower magistrates were privileged to sit in the highly esteemed chair.
During the time of the Roman Empire, the chair could be decorated with ivory, gold, or bronze.
After the assassination of Julius Ceasar on the Ides of March 44BC, Caesar August had coins stamped on the front with his image of the sella curulis.
SPAIN
Since Spain was part of the Roman Empire, it makes sense that this chair was eventually found there.
During the Renaissance, this chair was called silla francesca or sillón da cadera. Later another Spanish word for this chair was butaca.
MEXICO
Since Mexico was a colony of Spain, from the 16th to the 19th centuries, this chair of importance was found there too.
The Aztecs noted the grand arrival of Hernan Cortes in 1519, seated in the sillón da cadera.
A few hundred years later, the chair continued to be a trade commodity on the Yucatan Peninsula, which touches the Bay of Campeche.
The port city of Campeche was famous for trading logwood (Genus species name: Haemytoxylon campechianum)
LOUISIANA
Fort Worth, Texas houses documentation of trade between Campeche and Louisiana in the early 19th century of “Spanish chairs” or boutaque chairs, the French version of the Spanish butaca.
Meanwhile, these chairs became popular again, in Europe.
Who knew the Campeche chair was all about a linguistics lesson?
Nor did I know that its history spanned most of the eras of our history studies.
