26 
House & Garden 
“A design of a sofa for a 
Grand Apartment,” from 
T h o m as Chippendale’s 
“The Gentleman and Cabi¬ 
net - Maker’s Director,” 
published in London in 
1762 
COLLECTING COUCHES, SETTEES AND 
A Hobby that also Furnishes the House with the Veritable Antiques 
SOFAS 
GARDNER TEALL 
Photographs by Jessie Tarbox Beals, Inc., and Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 
Early English upholstered and cushion-seat sofa, cov¬ 
ered urith pet it-point embroidery. Period of Charles II 
(1660-85). Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art 
Mahogany sofa of 
American m a k e, 
produced in the 
early part of the 
19 th Century. 
From the collec¬ 
tion of Mrs. Lydia 
A very C o o nl e y 
Ward 
An unusually fine \lth Century sofa of the Louis XIV 
period (1715-23), upholstered with tapestry in the style 
of Berain. Courtesy of Metropolitan Museum of Art 
S HOULD anyone with a taste for antique 
furniture also find interest in old-fashioned 
verse he might some day come across Cowper’s 
lay, elegantly hinting at the evolution of loung¬ 
ing furniture, culminating in the development 
of the delectable sofa. 
I suppose few read old Cowper nowadays. 
I myself confess to no precocity in this direc¬ 
tion beyond a liking for the ballad of John 
Gilpin. Poor, gentle, melancholy Cowper, who 
tamed hares for diversion and gave to English 
poetry of the late 18th Century a cast more 
earnest and more simple than had come to be 
its wont before his pen expressed his gift! But 
Cowper, mild and quiet though he was, had 
yet a keen sense of humor. This crept into 
certain lines that the lover of antique furniture 
may enjoy having brought to his notice: 
Close packed and smiling in a chaise and one. 
But relaxation of the languid frame, 
By soft recumbency of outstretched limbs, 
Was bliss reserved for happier days; so slow 
The growth of what is excellent, so hard 
To attain perfection in this nether world. 
Thus, first necessity invented stools, 
Convenience next suggested elbow chairs, 
And luxury the accomplished SOFA last." 
L 1TC CULlCIl IlcLb clll cLIlLIClll clIlCl (_ Ido SI Cell 
cestry. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans 
utilized it extensively. The settee evolved from 
the double chair—love seat, it was often called; 
while the sofa combined, or was supposed to 
combine, all the advantages and virtues of 
couch and settee, not omitting the attractive¬ 
ness of the love seat! An understanding of 
these relationships adds not a 
little to the interest of collecting. 
We need not concern our¬ 
selves here with the couches of 
the ancients, but may pass to 
the early English forms of this 
article of furniture. The name 
| day bed was earlier used for 
I English couch furniture of the 
Jacobean period (1603-1688). 
The 17th Century day bed al- 
I lowed a person to recline com- 
j fortably at full length. It was 
| either laced or caned for cush¬ 
ioning. At one end the head- 
piece sloped back. At first this 
(Continued on page 78) 
"“Ingenious fancy, never better 
pleased 
Than when employed to ac¬ 
commodate the fair, 
Heard the sweet moan with 
pity and devised 
The soft SETTEE; one el¬ 
bow at each end 
And in the midst an elbow, 
it received, 
United, yet divided, twain at 
once. 
So sit two kings of Brentford 
on one throne; 
And so two citizens who take 
the air 
A mahogany Empire window seat of 
American manufacture. From the col¬ 
lection of Mrs. L. A. C. Ward 
A 
