Couch

CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Couch
Datec. 1720–1740
Made inBoston, Massachusetts, United States
MediumSoft maple
Dimensions37 1/2 × 21 1/2 × 65 1/8 in. (95.3 × 54.6 × 165.4 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, museum purchase funded by the Agnes Cullen Arnold Endowment Fund
Object numberB.90.5
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Pine Room
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

The couch, whose name comes from the French verb coucher, to lie down, is essen­tially a chair with an extended seat. De­rived from the French form known as the lit de repos, the couch was introduced from the Continent to England in the mid-seventeenth century. Caned examples of the couch form, along with caned chairs, were being exported from London to America by the late seventeenth cen­tury. To compete with these imports, local Boston chairmakers produced large numbers of leather-covered, turned chairs with arched, molded backs, which came to be called Boston chairs. A small group of Boston-made couches, of which this is one, relates in design to those Boston chairs, and was undoubtedly pro­duced by the same craftsmen. Typically made of maple, finished with a dark stain, these couches feature arched and molded back frames that could be raised or low­ered by means of adjustable chains to the desired angle. The turned vase finials, legs, and bulb-and-ring stretcher echo those elements of the Boston chair.

Technical notes: The upholstery arrange­ment of boxed mattress, cushion, and two pil­lows of graduated sizes is based on two early eighteenth-century English couches with surviving show covers (Macquoid 1987, vol. 1, fig. 197; and vol. 2, fig. 69 and p. 75, stating that the tradition of graduated-size pillows dates from the sixteenth century).

Related examples: Two are at Winterthur (Forman 1988, p. 355, no. 83, and p. 356, no. 84); Milwaukee Art Museum (Jobe et al. 1991, p. 75, no. 24); Yale (Kane 1976, p. 235, no. 221); RISD (Monkhouse and Michie 1986, no. 94); MMA (Nutting 1962, no. 1591); private collec­tion (Read 1938); Old Manse, Concord, Massa­chusetts; Sotheby’s, New York, sale 6954, Janu­ary 16, 1997, lot 37; American Art Association, Anderson Galleries, New York, Garvan Col­lection sale, January 8–10, 1931, lot 282.

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


Provenance[John S. Walton, Jewett City, Connecticut]; Mr. and Mrs. Hubert Harrison, Austin, Texas; purchased by MFAH, 1990.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
[no inscriptions]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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Side Chair
c. 1750–1795
Mahogany; eastern white pine
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Armchair
c. 1640–1690
Black cherry and hickory
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Pair of Side Chairs
Benjamin Henry Latrobe
1808
Yellow poplar, oak, maple, eastern white pine, gold leaf, gesso, and cane
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Low Side Chair
c. 1790–1810
Various undetermined woods
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Side Chair
c. 1740–1760
Black walnut; soft maple
B.60.51
scan from file photograph
c.1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine
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Armchair
c. 1785–1815
Ash; painted and gilded, composition decoration; original linen and horsehair foundation; gilded brass tacks; and modern silk cover
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Side Chair
late 17th century
Walnut
94.1059
Set of Six Side Chairs
c. 1830–1850
Mahogany; chestnut
B.2007.3.1-.6
Side Chair (one of a set of six)
c. 1830–1850
Mahogany; chestnut
B.2007.3.4
Side Chair (one of a set of six)
c. 1830–1850
Mahogany with chestnut
B.2007.3.5
Side Chair (one of a pair)
c. 1730–1800, decoration added c. 1800–1843
Black walnut; soft maple and eastern white pine
B.69.247.1