Some old chairs have very strange added parts that can confuse
today's collectors. A Windsor chair from the 18th century might
be made with an added piece at the end of the arm because it is
a "writing arm" Windsor. There can be a drawer beneath the seat
of a Shaker sewing chair. Many types of chairs were made into
rocking chairs with the addition of pieces of curved wood or a
bouncy platform with springs. A chair with paddlelike arms and a
rectangular wooden piece attached to the back at an angle is
known as a "cockfighting chair." It was thought the user sat
facing the back of the chair to see the fight, but now it is
believed that the wooden piece was meant to hold a book and that
the chair is a "reading chair" once used in libraries. A similar
chair was made by the Roycroft Colony in East Aurora, N.Y., in
about 1905. It had a narrow ledge at the top of the chair back.
The user sat facing the back and straddling the chair, with arms
leaning on the leather-covered wooden ledge. It is a meditation
chair. The