[Boris R.]

Were there any wicker chairs in 15th century? Not the rocking kind, but a simple kind with rest.

Thanks for your answers

[Boris R.]

no thoughts on this? I've tried Google, but no luck

[Jeffrey Faulk]

Rattan is native to Asia and some portions of Africa, so it would probably have been unavailable to medieval craftsmen.

However, native resources such as willow and split bark were frequently used in crafts such as basket-weaving and other wicker-work. This is not something I can find much information on online. There are (by deduction) two reasons for this:

--Wicker is fairly flammable/perishable. It's basically a very light wooden weaving. Chairs and furniture frequently use some sort of frame underneath the wicker which may be tougher, but once you take the wicker away they generally don't hold up very well. So, survivability of medieval wickerwork would have been very low-- if there was any in the first place.

I don't think there was any because wood was largely available and easily worked. Wicker was suitable for baskets and such, but for furniture it was better to use wood as that material was more robust and lasted longer with proper care.

--And as such, reason 2.), there isn't a whole lot of study on medieval furniture that's really available online... it's a niche field of a niche field of history!

[Boris R.]

Thanks Jeffrey, very reasonable answer.

[Peter O Zwart]

I don't actually know if there were any wicker chairs, but I know that Europe has gone though a couple of energy (wood) crisis, I'm not sure of the date on these, but it might have prompted people to use less burnable wood to make furniture from, but that's just speculation.