Couch

Dateca. 1725

MediumWalnut

DimensionsOH: 28 3/4"; OW: 75"; OD: 22"

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1936-331

DescriptionCouch on six turned legs with pad feet; straight, undecorated skirt; flat, upholstered seat intended for use with squab or mattress; scrolled, upholstered arm at one end.Label Text"Couch" and "Sofa" described forms with rather different functions in the 18th century. The sofa featured an arm at each end, a full-width back, and was intended for upright seating. On the other hand, the couch was essentially a long bench with a narrow back rest, or "head," at one end. Samuel Johnson defined a couch as a "seat of repose, on which it is common to lye down dressed," in his "Dictionary" (1755). This probably explains the origin of "daybed," a later name for the form.

Examples of period references for couches include George Washington's 1759 order and receipt for "A Neat....Marlb[orough] Couch" with "a Roll head...., Boulster and 2 pillows," a description that leaves no doubt about the object's appearance. This likely looked similar to couch 1936-331 that also has a roll head and woudl be used with a bolster and pillows. Allusions to the way couches were used in Virginia also reinforce the distinction between them and sofas. in July 1774, tutor Philip Fithian encountered plantation mistress Frances Tasker Carter of Nomini Hall "lying in the long room among the Books on the Couch," just as Samuel Johnson described. Significantly, post-Revolutionary Virginia records often contain the words "couch" and "sofa" in the same document, distinguishing between the two forms. When he died in 1799, Washington's by-then old "Leather Couch" had been moved to a passage "In the Garret," while his fashionable "front Parlour" contained a valuable "Sopha."