View source for Chaise

{{Short description|Two-wheeled horse-drawn carriage}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
[[File:Journal des Dames et des Modes, Costume Parisien, 1 septembre 1799, An 7 (155) Bokay, RP-P-2009-1378.jpg|thumb|Drawing of a chaise in Paris, 1799]]
[[File:Chaise (PSF).jpg|thumb|A chaise]]

A '''chaise''' ({{IPAc-en|ʃ|eɪ|z}} {{Respell|shayz}}), sometimes called '''shay''', is a light two-wheeled [[carriage]] for one or two people. It may also have a folding hood.{{r|cowie|p=55}} The coachmaker [[William Felton (coachmaker)|William Felton]] (1796) considered ''chaises'' a family of vehicles which included all two-wheel one-horse vehicles such as [[Gig (carriage)|gigs]] and [[#Whiskey|whiskies]], whereas a similar carriage pulled by two-horses was considered a [[curricle]].{{r|berkebile1978|p=80}}

== Etymology ==

The name, in use in England before 1700, came from the [[French language|French]] word {{lang|fr|chaise}}, meaning ''chair''.<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Chaise |volume=5 |page=802}}</ref>{{Efn|Chaise: Taken from the French word 'chair' and used generally in the naming of various vehicles such as the Post Chaise. In the 1800s numerous French designs and ideas were copied in England which inevitably led to the common use of French words in describing that which became generally accepted as an English vehicle. The Char-a-Banc is a classic example.{{r|walrond79|p=65}} }} The spelling ''shay'' is a colloquial variant of ''chaise'', particularly in North America.{{r|smith|p=146}} A variant ''chay'' is slang and sometimes refers to other types of vehicle.{{r|chay}}

== Design ==
[[File:Riding chair at Mount Vernon.jpg|thumb|Riding chair]]

The chaise is a two-wheeled carriage pulled by a single horse, usually with a chair-backed seat suitable for one or two persons. Felton writes that it is the finished look which dictates which type of chaise they are, but their construction is one of only two types: "the one, a chair-back body for gig or curricle, which hangs by braces—the other, a simple half-pannel whiskey, which fixes on the shafts".{{r|felton|p=45}}

A light chaise having two seats is a ''double chair''.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}} A ''chaise-cart'' is a light carriage used for transporting lightweight goods instead of people.{{r|cowie|p=55}} A [[sjees]] is often referred to as a ''Friesian chaise''.{{r|walrond79|p=128}} A ''[[post chaise]]'' is a vehicle designed for private long-distance travel via [[Stage station|posting stations]], originally with two-wheels (known as ''chaise-a-porteurs'' or ''posting chariot'') but later becoming a four-wheeled vehicle while retaining the word "chaise" in the name.{{r|smith|p=42}}{{r|walrond79|p=217}}

A '''riding chair''' was a chaise body with no top.<ref>{{cite book | last=Huntington | first=A.S. | title=Under a Colonial Roof-tree: Fireside Chronicles of Early New England | publisher=Wolcott and West | year=1892 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mx1EAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA33 | access-date=2023-11-26 | page=33}}</ref> This type of a chaise was also known under multiple other names: Windsor riding chair, solo chair, gig. The riding chair originated in England, but using the [[Windsor chair]] was an American contribution, with the earliest known mention from [[Charleston, North Carolina]] in 1757.<ref>{{cite book | last=Evans | first=N.G. | author2=Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum | title=American Windsor Furniture: Specialized Forms | publisher=Hudson Hills Press | year=1997 | isbn=978-1-55595-064-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bwWUM8IsM1UC&pg=PA227 | access-date=2024-07-02 | page=227}}</ref>

== Whiskey ==
{{multiple image|perrow = 1|total_width=200|align=right 
|image1 = Cane whiskey (Felton 1796).jpg
|image2 = Half-panel whiskey (Felton 1796).jpg
|footer = A cane whiskey (top), and a half-panel whiskey with a falling hood
}}

A ''whiskey'' (also spelled ''whisky'', plural ''whiskies'' {{r|berkebile1978|p=300}}) was a lightweight two-wheeled chaise that seated one or two persons. It was so named because it would "whisk" along at great speeds. It was often constructed with [[Caning (furniture)|caned]] sides and no dashboard which further lightened the vehicle. Shafts were fitted under the body and it was hung on shallow-sideways platform springs. It was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.{{r|smith|p=173}}{{r|walrond79|p=295}}{{r|felton|p=113}}

== American shay ==
According to Berkebile, "The chaise was one of the most popular vehicles used in colonial America and did not pass from the scene until the mid-nineteenth century. It was widely used by all social classes."{{r|berkebile1978|p=82}} In America, the chaise was constructed with a standing or falling hood, whereas the same vehicle without a hood was called a ''chair''. The body was either directly on the shafts or used leather thoroughbraces, or was constructed with wooden cantilever springs and braces which is thought to be an American development.{{r|berkebile1978|pp=80-2}}

The vehicle was commonly called a ''shay'' in New England, and the word ''shay'' was further popularized by [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.|Oliver Wendell Holmes's]] 1858 poem ''[[wikisource:The Deacon's Masterpiece|The Deacon's Masterpiece, or The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay]]''.{{r|berkebile1978|pp=82,249}}<ref>{{Cite book |first=Oliver Wendell |last=Holmes |author-link=Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. |title=The one-hoss shay, with its companion poems |year=1905 |publisher=Houghton, Mifflin and Company |ol=6961416M |others=Illustrated by Howard Pyle}}</ref>

"Shay" was also a term used in Nova Scotia. One memoirist writes of an early 19th century judge using "a vehicle, then generally called a chaise, or as a rustic would style it, a ''shay''."<ref>A Brief History of Public Proceedings[...]in the Province of Nova Scotia[....], [https://www.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.17434/11 pg. 5] (Image 11). Accessed 21 August 2024</ref>

[[File:Old One Horse Shay.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2|An American shay showing the wooden cantilever suspension style]]

=== One-hoss shay ===
In economics, the term "one-hoss shay" is used, following the scenario in Holmes' poem, to describe a model of [[depreciation]], in which a durable product delivers the same services throughout its lifetime before failing, or being retired, with no [[salvage value]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=1904 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131031215315/http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=1904 |archive-date=October 31, 2013 |series=Glossary of Statistical Terms |title=One-Hoss Shay |accessdate=2013-05-30 |format= |work=[[OECD]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |title=Getting Rental Prices Right for Computers: Reconciling Different Perspectives on Depreciation |first1=Erwin |last1=Diewert |first2=Hui |last2=Wei |date=February 2017 |doi=10.1111/roiw.12249 |journal=[[Review of Income and Wealth]] |volume=63 |issue=s1 |pages=S149-S168 |quote=The "one hoss shay" or "light bulb" model of depreciation assumes that the service flow of the asset is constant over the lifetime L of the asset and then it is retired at the end of L periods of use.}}</ref>{{Rp|S150}}

==See also ==
* [[Bath chair]]—Early form of wheelchair sometimes called a chaise or handchaise
* [[Post chaise]]—A [[Coach (carriage)|coach]] for long distance travel using [[Stage station|posting stations]]

== Explanatory notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|2|refs=

<ref name="berkebile1978">{{Cite book |last=Berkebile |first=Donald H. |title=Carriage Terminology: An Historical Dictionary |year=1978 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press |isbn=9781935623434 |ol=33342342M}}</ref>

<ref name="chay">{{Cite web |title=chay n., also chay-cart, shay |url=https://greensdictofslang.com/entry/blqnwzq |work=[[Green's Dictionary of Slang]]}}</ref>

<ref name=cowie>{{cite book |last=Cowie |first=L.W. |title=The Wordsworth Dictionary of British Social History |year=1996 |publisher=[[Wordsworth Editions]] |isbn=1-85326-378-8 |ol=22262013M}}</ref>

<ref name="felton">{{Cite book |first=William |last=Felton |author-link=William Felton (coachmaker) |title=A Treatise on Carriages |year=1996 |orig-year=1796 |publisher=Astragal Press |ol=21753408M |isbn=1879335700 |type=Reprint of both volumes}} ([https://archive.org/details/treatiseoncarria01felt/ Original Vol I], [https://archive.org/details/treatiseoncarria02felt/ Original Vol II])</ref>

<ref name="smith">{{cite book |title=A Dictionary of Horse Drawn Vehicles |first=D.J.M. |last=Smith |year=1988 |publisher=J. A. Allen & Co. Ltd. |isbn=0851314686 |ol=11597864M}}</ref>

<ref name="walrond79">{{cite book |title=The Encyclopaedia of Driving |first=Sallie |last=Walrond |year=1979 |publisher=Country Life Books |isbn=0600331822 |ol=4175648M}}</ref>
}}

== External links ==
{{Commonscat|Chaises}}

{{Horse-drawn carriages}}

[[Category:Carriages]]