Why do some joint stools have slanted legs?

Splayed legs offer a wider footprint. Early furniture needed to remain upright on uneven stone or mud floors. A straight-legged stool tips easily, whereas splayed legs distribute the weight outward. Joiners achieved this angle by cutting the mortise and tenon joints at a slight pitch. It takes more skill than a square frame, but it makes the seat far more stable during use.

My grandmother always called hers a coffin stool, but I was wondering if they were actually used for funerals back in the day?

The term 'coffin stool' is a Victorian invention. Nineteenth-century romanticism attached gloomy narratives to old oak furniture, assuming these seats were made specifically to support coffins during wakes. While they were pressed into service to hold a coffin when someone died at home, that was just a practical use of available household items. Their actual purpose was everyday dining and sitting.

What is the hole in the seat for?

Many have an oblong slot cut through the centre of the seat board. This acts as a handling hole. People moved them regularly. A central slot lets you pick the stool up with one hand to shift it near a fire or out of the way.

I was looking at a few oak stools online and noticed that some of the older ones seem to be quite low to the ground compared to modern dining chairs. Why is that?

Several factors influence the height of early seating. Some were indeed made lower to suit specific tasks, like working near a hearth or spinning. However, a significant number of surviving stools have lost height over the centuries. Resting on damp stone floors causes the end grain of the timber to rot. Over generations, owners simply cut an inch or two off the bottom to level the legs once they became uneven.

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Antique Joint Stools

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Antique joint stools are small, portable wooden seats constructed with pegged mortise and tenon joints, serving as the standard seating in early modern homes before chairs became commonplace.