Chair Avatars
This is a display area for my spare chairs - my various Twitter avatars.
Why Chairs?
Chairs symbolize social interaction. They invite you to sit down and stay a while; take a load off. You're probably sitting right now. We sit down to digest news. We sit to think. We sit to be social. You might say chairs are the first social media. Okay, you wouldn't but let's pretend.
Some beautiful chairs are painful to sit on (talkin' to you Frank Lloyd Wright, and owners of Indian restaurants everywhere). Many comfy chairs can look quite ugly. Chairs can fit with all situations - from thrones to bean-bags. Lawn chairs say "relax, enjoy the weather." Kitchen chairs say "have a bite." Dentists' chairs say "sit down and scream a while."
As an early user of Twitter in '07, I began to explore a dynamic avatar idea – it was always easy to identify my feed based on the avatar's subject matter, but the actual image changed often. If you followed me and my meanderings, I hope you found the conversation fun and/or thoughtful. Pull up a chair.
The avatar history is captured below...
Jul 31, 2014
Buffington Auto Chair
Chairs in your car were once an accessory, apparently. In the early days of automobiles, this chair design from Calvin Buffington in New York was aimed at the owners of a nice new Model T Ford who might want to fit in some passengers. The manufacturer, C.A. Buffington & Co. of Berkshire, NY, also made other chairs. Exploring the folding chair market, it appears. This unique rugged (patented) 1912 chair is made from steel and leatherette and they can still be found at antique dealers for $300 or less apparently. Not particularly beautiful, but as utilitarian and functional as chairs get for a specific application.
I discovered the Buffington designs while in NYC in 2014, and noticing a curious steel, wood and leatherette seat of interesting construction while on the patio of an Argentinian restaurant on the upper east side. It took a bit of searching, but I managed to identify it and learn a bit about the Buffington Co.
As a footnote, that leatherette seat from the Argentinian patio popped into my life again, later, in September 2014, while in vacation and visiting Bletchley Park (of Alan Turing and WWII Enigma-breaking fame). There, in one of offices exhibits was the same folding Buffington wood and leatherette model.
