The Bride’s Chair

Brides covet this Parisian inspired Italian-designed chair as the chair of choice for their wedding reception.

The concept of the Chiavari Chair began in the namesake costal Italian town of Chiavari near Genoa. Carving had been a specialty of town’s craftsmen since the year 1200’s and it was here in 1807 that the Marquis Stefano Rivarola, the president of the Economic Society of Chiavari, brought back samples of an elegant chair from a trip to France that was destined to become an icon of design.

Rivarola introduced the chair to a pair of local craftsmen, the Descalzi brothers, who simplified the design to make it more utilitarian yet keeping the elegant style of the original.

The design and construction of the chair made it very popular in the 1800’s for elegant events in the courts of kings and Popes. Throughout the years the chairs continued to gain in popularity. Parties and receptions from prominent hotel dining rooms to grand ballrooms soon were styled with tables surrounded by Chiavari chairs. Guests at high profile Hollywood movie awards, New York theater events and White House galas were seated on Chiavari chairs, now icons of elegance, class and sophistication.

Brides covet this Parisian inspired Italian-designed chair as the chair of choice for their wedding reception when it was featured at the 1953 wedding of John F. Kennedy and Jacquline Bouvier. And today it remains, by far, a bride’s favorite chair