Antique and Vintage Sofas

Like a lot of furniture from the 19th and early 20th centuries, antique sofas often show signs of repair, which means their frames need to be checked to make sure the original wood and securing pegs or dowels have not been “upgraded” with inferior species or modern hardware. Even less common is an antique sofa with its original upholstery, especially if that upholstery was cloth. If you purchase a sofa for the style and strength of its frame, try to upholster it is a style that suits its period. One of the most distinctive sofa styles of the late-18th and early 19th centuries was the camel-back, which described the camel-like hump in the middle of the sofa’s back. Camel-back sofas were common in the Federal Period (1789-1823) and were produced in the United States by Thomas Chippendale, Duncan Phyfe, and many others. In contrast, Sheraton-style "country" sofas from around the same era had straight backs whose top rails and arms were often crowned with carved mahogany. As the Federal style gave way to Empire, sofas began to resemble Roman couches with scroll-shaped legs. These sofas were followed by those of the Rococo and Renaissance Revival styles, which is what many think of when they think of Victorian furniture. By the end of the 19th century, Mission-style sofas of the Arts and Crafts movement came briefly into vogue, produced and promoted by numerous members of the Stickley family, and these sofas led to Art Deco examples, which begat Modernist and eventually Mid-Century Modern sofas and furniture that today remain both popular for use, as well as for collecting. Key examples of this last era are the Barcelona Couch by Mies van der Rohe and the Marshmallow Sofa, which was credited to George Nelson but was actually designed by Irving Harper.