This is a remarkable survival of an early 17th-century 'backstool' with its original upholstery, nearly 400 years old. The 'backstool' was essentially a chair without arms, but as the name makes clear, it evolved by adding a back to a stool rather than by taking the arms away from a chair. Before this development, seating mainly took the form of stools and benches, and a house would have held at most one armchair, to be occupied by the most important person present (the owner or an honoured guest).
The seat of this chair, beneath the covers, is a fully-formed cushion - a ticking case filled with feathers - which has been nailed down to the frame. This way of forming the seat reveals its development from the use of loose cushions on top of a wooden seat, and marks the beginning of the practice of fixed upholstery.