A curule chair is a seat with a distinctive X-shaped or double-curved base, derived from the sella curulis, the folding stool used by magistrates and high officials in ancient Rome as a symbol of authority. The legs cross beneath the seat in two opposing curves, and the form may be made as a stool, a chair with back and arms, or a bench.
The curule form was revived during the Renaissance and became especially fashionable in the early nineteenth century, when Regency and Empire designers sought to recreate the furniture of antiquity. In Britain it is associated with Thomas Hope and the archaeological taste of the Regency, and it appears in pattern books of the period, as well as in French Empire furniture made for Napoleonic palaces. Regency curule chairs and stools were made in mahogany, rosewood and ebonised or gilded beech, sometimes with brass inlay or lion masks. Later nineteenth-century and reproduction versions are common. When assessing an example, check the joints at the crossing point, which take considerable strain, and look for crisp carving, original surface and sensible proportions. Curule stools work well at the foot of a bed or in a hallway.
