Linda Atton, age 14, of Chester, Pa., for her question:

WHEN WAS THE FIRST CHAIR BUILT?

We don't know when the first chair was built but we do know that the popular piece of furniture goes back to the most ancient times. The earliest known chairs are Egyptian. They were usually low and were fitted with curved backs.

Historians have discovered painted and carved representations of various kinds of Egyptian chairs on the walls of tombs.

For hundreds of years, chairs were used only by royalty, nobility and the priesthood, and by the wealthy classes. Chairs did not become a common article of furniture until the 16th century.

The change from the conception of the chair as a sign of power to that of an article for common use came about during the Renaissance. Until the middle of the 17th century, ordinary European chairs were of oak and were not upholstered. Later, leather was used for upholstery and then velvet and silk were used.

The oak chairs were at first massive and heavy. Later cane backs and seats were introduced, as in the Louis XIII chair in France in the first half of the 17th century. Variations of this design occurred during the reigns of later French kings.

The earliest chairs for ordinary use in England were low and had heavy, carved backs. With the beginning of the 17th century, English chairs, in imitation of French models, taller and lighter and the carving on them was limited to the framework.

The English chair of the later 17th century had spiral turnings and seats and backs with cane panels or needlework.

The first chairs made in the American colonies were of oak or pine and were modeled on the chairs of the various countries from which the colonists came, notably England, Holland, Sweden and Germany. Colonial chairs, in general, followed the changing styles of chairs in England.

The Windsor chair, a strong rail back chair made of oak, ash or hickory and patterned on English models, was popular in colonial days.

An important American chairmaker in the first half of the 19th century was Duncan Phyfe of New York City.

In the 20th century, designers have used newly available materials and techniques to create entirely new chair forms.

Back to the medieval times: one of the most famous chairs was the so called throne of Dagobert I (early 9th century chair which is now in the Louvre in Paris). It was a folding chair constructed of cast bronze with legs in the form of animal heads and feet.

Perhaps one of the oldest chairs in England is the very elaborate Gothic oak chair (13th century chair which is now in Westminster Abbey, London) that was used for the corination of Edward I and most of the succeeding English kings and queens.