Before the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), the predominant sitting positions in the Han Chinese culture, as well as several of its neighbors, were the seiza and lotus position on the floor or sitting mats. The earliest images of chairs in China are from sixth-century Buddhist murals and stele, but the practice of sitting in chairs at that time was rare. It was not until the twelfth century that chairs became widespread in China. Scholars disagree on the reasons for the adoption of the chair. The most common theories are that the chair was an outgrowth of indigenous Chinese furniture, that it evolved from a camp stool imported from Central Asia, that it was introduced to China by Nestorian missionaries in the seventh century, and that the chair came to China from India as a form of Buddhist monastic furniture. ^[1] In China today, both elevated living and mat level forms are still in use. ^[2]

One type of ancient Mexican chair called the icpalli is mentioned by Jacques Soustelle. ^[3] The icpalli can be seen in Diego Rivera's mural of the Aztec market of Tlatelolco, located in the Mexican National Palace. The icpalli is also featured in the Codex Telleriano-Remensis; dignitaries and emperors are depicted sitting in them. ^[4]

Unlike in France, the chair was widespread in the homes of Canadien peasants since the 17th century ^[5]. Those could be divided into two main types of chairs : .

According to the 1748 customs tariffs, one needed to pay a custom fee when importing armchairs, chairs ("six sols cy" for both) and bergères (12 livres) from France.

The chair of Maximian in the cathedral of Ravenna is believed to date from the middle of the 6th century. It is of marble, round, with a high back, and is carved in high relief with figures of saints and scenes from the Gospels—the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, the flight into Egypt and the baptism of Christ. The smaller spaces are filled with carvings of animals, birds, flowers and foliated ornament. ^[6] The Chair of St. Augustine, dating from at least the early thirteenth century ^[7] is one of the oldest cathedrae is not in use.

Another very ancient seat is the so-called " Chair of Dagobert" in the Cabinet des médailles of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is of cast bronze, sharpened with the chisel and partially gilt; it is of the curule or faldstool type and supported upon legs terminating in the heads and feet of animals. The seat, which was probably of leather, has disappeared. Its attribution depends entirely upon the statement of Suger, abbot of St Denis in the 12th century, who added a back and arms. Its age has been much discussed, but Viollet-le-Duc dated it to early Merovingian times, and it may in any case be taken as the oldest faldstool in existence. ^[6]

To the same generic type belongs the famous abbots’ chair of Glastonbury; such chairs might readily be taken to pieces when their owners travelled. The faldisterium in time acquired arms and a back, while retaining its folding shape. The most famous, as well as the most, ancient, English chair is that made at the end of the 13th century for Edward I, in which most subsequent monarchs have been crowned. It is of an architectural type and of oak, and was covered with gilded gesso which long since disappeared. ^[6]

Passing from these historic examples we find the chair monopolized by the ruler, lay or ecclesiastical, to a comparatively late date. As the seat of authority it stood at the head of the lord's table, on his dais, by the side of his bed. The seigneurial chair, more common in France and the Netherlands than in England, is a very interesting type, approximating in many respects to the episcopal or abbatial throne or stall. It early acquired a very high back and sometimes had a canopy. Arms were invariable, and the lower part was closed in with panelled or carved front and sides—the seat, indeed, was often hinged and sometimes closed with a key. ^[8]

That we are still said to sit "in" an arm-chair and "on" other kinds of chairs is a reminiscence of the time when the lord or seigneur sat "in his chair." These throne-like seats were always architectural in character, and as Gothic feeling waned took the distinctive characteristics of Renaissance work. ^[9] The furniture makers also covered their crude work with gold which is called gilding.

In Europe, it was owing in great measure to the Renaissance that the chair ceased to be a mark of high office, and became the customary companion of whoever could afford to buy it. Once the idea of privilege faded the chair speedily came into general use. We find almost at once began to reflect the fashions of the hour. No piece of furniture has ever been so close an index to sumptuary changes. It has varied in size, shape and sturdiness with the fashion not only of women's dress but of men's also. Thus the chair which was not, even with its arms purposely suppressed, too ample during the several reigns of some form or other of hoops and farthingale, became monstrous when these protuberances disappeared. Again, the costly laced coats of the dandy of the 18th and early 19th centuries were so threatened by the ordinary form of seat that a "conversation chair" was devised, which enabled the buck and the ruffler to sit with his face to the back, his valuable tails hanging unimpeded over the front^{[ non sequitur]}. The early chair almost invariably had arms, and it was not until towards the close of the 16th century that the smaller form grew common. ^[9]

The majority of the chairs of all countries until the middle of the 17th century were of timber (the commonest survival is oak) ^[10] without upholstery, and when it became customary to cushion them, leather was sometimes employed; subsequently velvet and silk were extensively used, and at a later period cheaper and often more durable materials. ^[9] . In Abraham Bosse's engraving (illustration, left), a stylish Parisian musical party of about 1630 have pulled their low chairs (called " backstools" in contemporary England) away from the tapestry-hung walls where they were normally lined up. The padded back panels were covered with needlework panels to suit the tapestries, or in other settings with leather, plain or tooled. Plain cloth across the back hid the wooden framing. Stools with column legs complement the set, but aren't en suite. In seventeenth century France the bergère chair became fashionable among the nobility and was often made of walnut.

Leather was not infrequently used even for the costly and elaborate chairs of the faldstool form—occasionally sheathed in thin plates of silver—which Venice sent all over Europe. To this day, indeed, leather is one of the most frequently employed materials for chair covering. The outstanding characteristic of most chairs until the middle of the 17th century was massiveness and solidity. Being usually made of oak, they were of considerable weight, and it was not until the introduction of the handsome Louis XIII chairs with cane backs and seats that either weight or solidity was reduced. ^[9]

Stools are of great importance for the Akan people of Ghana, both as a status symbol, as a practical object for seating ^[11] and as an object of great spiritual significance. ^[12] Thus, according to Sarpong, the chair was only introduced through European contact and stools have remained the seating of choice for the Asante people. ^[13] The Asante chairs designs (asipim, hwedom and akonkromfi or nnamu) appear to be based upon European mid 17th-century prototypes. ^[12] Chairs were brought to Ghana by Europeans not for trading, but for their own use. ^[12]

However, on the subject of the foreign origin of Ghanian chairs, Alex A. Y. Kyerematen says: ^[14]

It has been contended that the designs of the hwedom and the akonkromfi look foreign and may be copies of European designs introduced by early Portuguese and Dutch traders. If this view is established, however, it makes nonsense of the history given to me of the evolution of the asipim chair.

— Panoply of Ghana, p.28

The asipim is the most common type of chairs; minor chiefs may have at least one, whereas wealthier chiefs may have several. ^[12] Locally-made chairs are a royal prerogative, mainly used for stately matter. Osei Tutu made for himself the Hwedom chair. ^[15] The Golden Stool was sat upon a chair with a longer seat so that it could be seen during public occasions called the Hwedom-Tea, or the slender Hwedom. Nowadays, chairs are preferred to ceremonial stools as seating. ^[16] They are devoid of spiritual significance, probably because of their foreign origin.

Palanquins are used by the Asante, carried by four mens' heads. ^[12]