La parade citadine aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles: enquête méridionale sur la chaise à porteurs

Abstract

Wide spread in the main French towns during the 17th and 18th centuries, the sedan-chair became the urban mean of transport above any other. Adapted to traffic difficulties, this strong and light box conveys its occupants, whoever they are : occasional user -hiring it- or owner, displaying on the chair his coat of arms to express his rank. During more than two centuries, the sedan-chair kept the same basic features in its framework while offering a furniture-like comfort by taking from resting chairs their soft and strong velvets. Coach makers, official producers of these "carried furniture" since 1679, offered simple versions, in line with the latest fashion or with the taste of some provincial towns. The painted decorations were meaningful or simply pleasant. Coming from a common visual heritage and from imaginative compositions inspired by engravings, these motifs reveal a genuine technical and artistic know-how. Documents from archives, numerous iconographic sources and a detailed catalogue of 60 sedan-chairs enable for the first time the study and increased knowledge of these vehicles, threatened today by disappearance.