Baroque-Style Two-Seat Settee in Grey-Washed Carved Wood with Plumed Crest and Linen Upholstery

About this object

A two-seat settee in the Baroque manner — the exuberant, sculptural style that preceded rococo's curves and neoclassicism's restraint — carved in solid hardwood and finished in a layered grey wash over natural linen upholstery. The crest rail tells you everything about its ambitions: a serpentine line rising and falling across three arches, crowned at each shoulder and at centre by carved acanthus plumes that break the silhouette like flourishes on a signature. Open arms scroll down in long S-curves to carved volute handholds; below, a pierced apron of carved foliage runs the full width between the legs, so the settee is ornamented from crest to floor — the Baroque conviction that no member of a piece of furniture should go undecorated. The carving here is sculptor's work more than joiner's. The plumes are modelled in the round and undercut so they stand free of the rail behind them, catching light from every angle; the pierced apron is fretted through and then carved on its face, double labour on the piece's most break-prone element. The arms are shaped from solid stock with the grain steered through two reversing curves — the same discipline as a violin scroll. The grey wash is applied and removed by hand in layers, settling into carved recesses and rubbing off the high points, so the ornament reads in tone as well as relief: the finish does half the carving's work of catching the eye. A two-seater of this character solves rooms that full sofas cannot enter. It is the classic foot-of-the-bed piece; the entrance-hall seat that makes a first impression; the bay-window perch; the bedroom companion to a single armchair where a second sofa would suffocate the room. The linen-and-grey palette lets a very ornate form sit calmly in modern interiors — all that Baroque drama, whispered. It seats two for conversation and one, with cushions, for an afternoon with a book.