1. Begin by thinking about the basic function of a chair. What is necessary for a good chair? Sit in the chairs in the classroom, then make a list of the features of a good chair.
   
   
2. Look closely at the three chairs. Identify some of the features that might have affected their relative cost or desirability when new. What features would take the longest to make? What features would be the most difficult to make? How could that affect the cost? Could any other features affect the cost?
   
   
3. Search the collection to look at other chairs in the Bayou Bend Collection. After studying other chairs in the Bayou Bend Collection, the students will use elements from chairs to design their own chairs that would sell for low, medium, and high costs. Students will also write a catalogue entry for each chair describing it and indicating the reasons for the cost.

Background Information

Americans in the past faced many of the same decisions that Americans in the present do in making purchases. They were limited by what was available, what they could afford, and what was fashionable. American consumers throughout history have often had to accommodate their desire for "the latest model" by choosing less expensive features. As these three chairs show, a buyer could choose from a wide range of possibilities even among chairs of a similar type. Features like turned legs or arms that could be made quickly and efficiently with labor-saving tools were less expensive options, while hand-carved parts represented more time and materials and, finally, a higher cost.

For the past 300 years, America has been a nation of consumers. The home has always been the focus for consumer buying in America. Emphasis has been placed on displays of taste, status, and wealth throughout the home. As household goods became less costly and more widely available over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the boundaries between the genteel and the commonplace were constantly being redefined.

Throughout the 1600s and 1700s, many of these choices were made by the male head of the family. In the nineteenth century, the American woman became the manager of the home, the decision-maker about purchases, and the target of retailers.