And how is it different from a regular living room leather chair (because that's what it looks like).
Yowza is right, except that those clubs had lots of different chair styles in them (Wing, Charles of London, Tuxedo, etc )... Add this thought, from common usage... Look at the front of the arm. If it is shaped kinda like this P ; THAT's a club chair. (the front of the arm has a club shape)
The word club in club chair harks back to the gentlemen's clubs in nineteenth century England where a gentleman could go to get away from his household (including womenfolk). Once there, he would sink into a well-upholstered leather chair and relax with a drink and perhaps a cigar. The names of the fashionable London streets full of such clubs are still used to name classic club chairs : St. James, Piccadilly and so on.
