Settee

Dateca. 1760

MediumMahogany and oak

DimensionsOH: 39 1/2"; OW: 47 7/8"; OD: 21 5/8"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1982-120

DescriptionTriple back settee with three pierced splats held at bottom with a serpentine shaped shoe and divided by shaped stiles; rounded eared crest rails for each splat; straight arms extend arm extend out from stiles and curve down to top of front leg; geometric latticework between the arms and side rails; deep side rails undercut with flat arch; straight mahogany veneered front rail; four straight legs, square in cross section.
Label TextThe settee has a history at Blandfield, the eighteenth-century plantation home of the Beverley family in Essex County, Virginia. Structural evidence suggests that it originally functioned as a settee-bedstead, but the folding mechanism has been removed. Virginia documents describe such pieces in passages, where they provided a cool sleeping space in summer. Storage in a passage also made a settee accessible for carrying into the garden. Many English prints and paintings show mahogany furniture being temporarily used outdoors.
ProvenanceTradition of having descended in the family of Robert Beverley of Blandfield, Essex County, Virginia. It was part of the estate of Mrs. Herbert Scott Osburn's husband's mother, Fannie Scott Beverley Osburn, who was born and reared at Blandfield Plantation. The settee came from Blandfield and was a Beverley family piece having been inherited by Mrs. Osburn from her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Carter Beverley.