Exercise Chair, 1790-1820
"Exercise chairs like this mahogany example were sometimes called 'chamber-horses', because the users bounced up and down, exercising their legs in a way similar to riding a horse. They were an early equivalent of the modern indoor exercise bicycle. They were advertised from as early as 1740, and were evidently still used in 1803 when the designer Thomas Sheraton illustrated one in his Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Drawing Book. From the 1740s they were constructed from several layers of boards separated by metal coiled springs, although springs were not used for the upholstery of easy chairs until the 1830s."
From the Victoria and Albert Museum













