House & Garden 
82 
\9Kink of the .years « 
E^rn|tS)e fiave fad 
As the years roll on and you still admire the. enduring 
beauty of your Whittall Rugs, how convincingly they 
show that the real value of a rug is measured in 
length of service and not just in dollars and cents. 
It takes years of the hardest wear to prove the actual cost to you. 
Your memory of the price tag will eventually tell you whether 
you have invested wisely or otherwise. 
“Oriental Art in Whittall Rugs.” Our illustrated book de- 
M. 1. WHITTALL ASSOCIATES 
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Collecting Couches, Settees and Sofas 
( Continued, from page 80) 
Chippendale forms, were a refinement of 
these latter. They were supported by 
four or by six legs usually, though sev¬ 
eral window seats of Adam style have 
eight legs. These settees bear the char¬ 
acteristic fluting on the front rail. 
The Hepplewhite settees are, for the 
most part, double backs or triple backs 
and follow in design the chair styles 
of this type. A Hepplewhite settee of 
1780, upholstered in silk brocade, has 
the vase detail in the arm-post and 
the legs are turned and reeded. Other 
Hepplewhite settees were cane seated and 
cushioned, and with these squab cush¬ 
ions were used. 
Sheraton himself tells us that cane- 
work as applied to furniture again came 
into favor with cabinet-makers about 
the year 1773. A very fine Sheraton 
two-back settee painted with medallions 
by Angelica Kauffmann is extant to test 
the skill of the 18th Century furniture 
maker in the reintroduction of the use 
of cane for seating, and for the backs. 
Some of the Sheraton settees were up¬ 
holstered and some were designed for 
cushion coverings. 
French Settees 
The settees of the various French 
periods followed the general chair furni¬ 
ture lines in these styles, as did the 
settees of the English and of the Ameri¬ 
can Empire styles. 
“Ingenious fancy” now brings us to 
the “accomplished sofa.” The settees 
and love seats of the Jacobeans and the 
couches that had long preceded even 
them united in the achievement that 
Cowper immortalizes and which no early 
Victorian novelist could have dispensed 
| with in creating his “atmosphere.” The 
sofas of William and Mary and of 
| Queen Anne were expanded and up- 
! holstered settees in effect. Chippendale 
devoted much attention to the sofa and 
came to use rolled over arms in the 
larger one. Several of these are illus¬ 
trated in his “The Gentleman and 
Cabinet-Maker’s Director” already re¬ 
ferred to. Plate XXX shows two such 
sofas, and that on Plate XXXI is de¬ 
scribed by him as follows: “A Design 
of a Sofa for a grand Apartment, and 
will require great Care in the Execu¬ 
tion, to make the several Parts come in 
such a Manner, that all the Ornaments 
join without the least Fault: and if the 
Embossments all along are rightly man¬ 
aged, and gilt with burnished Gold, the 
whole will have a noble Appearance. 
The Carving at the Top is the Emblem 
of Watchfulness, Assiduity, and Rest. 
The Pillows and Cushions must not be 
omitted, though they are not in the De¬ 
sign. The Dimensions are nine Feet 
long, without the Scrolls; the broadest 
Part of the Seat, from Front to Back, 
two Feet, six Inches; the Height of the 
Back from the Seat, three Feet, six 
Inches; and the Height of the Seat 
one Foot, two Inches, without Casters. 
I would advise workmen to make a 
Model of it at large, before he begins 
to execute it.” 
Adam Sofas 
The Adam sofas closely fall in with 
the general features of the Adam style, 
and the same may be said of the sofas 
of Hepplewhite and Sheraton. Hepple¬ 
white, in his book, tells us that the 
dimensions of sofas “should vary ac¬ 
cording to the size of the room, but the 
proportion in general use is, length be¬ 
tween 6 and 7 feet; depth about 30 
inches; height of the seat frame 14 
inches; total in the back, 3 feet 1 inch. 
The woodwork should be either mahog¬ 
any or japanned to suit the chairs in 
the room, and the covering must match 
that of the chairs.” Four designs of 
sofas appear in Hepplewhite’s book. 
Plate 27 therein shows a confidante. Of 
This he says: “This piece of furniture 
is of French origin, and is in pretty 
general request for large and spacious 
suites of apartments. An elegant draw¬ 
ing-room with modern furniture is scarce 
complete without a confidante; the ex¬ 
tent of which may be about 9 feet, sub¬ 
ject to the same regulations as sofas. 
This piece of furniture is sometimes so 
constructed that the ends take away 
and leave a regular sofa; the ends may 
be used as Barjier chairs.” 
Of the Duchesse sofa Hepplewhite 
says: “This piece of furniture is also 
derived from the French. Two Barjier 
chairs of proper construction, with a 
stool in the middle, form the Duchesse, 
which is allotted to large and spacious 
ante-rooms; the covering may be vari¬ 
ous, as also the framework, and made 
from six to eight feet long. The stuffing 
may be of the round manner as shown 
in the drawing, or low-stuffed with a 
loose squab or bordered cushion fitted 
to each part; with a duplicate linen 
cover to cover the whole, or each part 
separately. Confidantes, sofas and chairs 
may be stuffed in the same manner.” In 
the rooms of the Antiquarian Society, 
Concord, Massachusetts, is a sofa which 
once belonged to Samuel Barron and 
which shows mixed Hepplewhite and 
Sheraton characteristics. 
In Girard College, Philadelphia, one 
may see a Sheraton sofa that once be¬ 
longed to Stephen Girard, the founder. 
Sheraton himself describes one of his 
own sofas as follows: “A sofa done in 
white and gold, or japanned. Four 
loose cushions are placed at the back. 
They serve at times for bolsters, being 
placed against the arms to loll against. 
The seat is stuffed up in front about 
three inches high above the rail, denoted 
by the figure of a sprig running length¬ 
wise ; all above that is a squab, which 
may be taken off occasionally.” Shera¬ 
ton also tells of the Turkey sofa “intro¬ 
duced into the most fashionable homes 
as a novelty, an invention of the Turk¬ 
ish mode of sitting. They are, there¬ 
fore, made very low, scarcely exceeding 
a foot to the upper side of the cushion. 
The frame may be made of beech, and 
must be webbed and strained with can¬ 
vas to support the cushions.” 
It would be interesting to go on dwell¬ 
ing upon a subject so rich in lore, but, 
I fear, so little studied. I have gen¬ 
erously refrained from harrowing men¬ 
tion of haircloth, as I imagine there is 
little I could add to a subject that all 
readers are probably too familiar with 
already. But the lover of antique furni¬ 
ture may wish to have reserved some¬ 
thing to discover for himself, and so I 
take leave of the subject hoping he will 
have the joy in following it out that 
I have had. 
