The sofa, period by period

Why this site exists

A reference for the shape of comfort

The word sofa reached English from Arabic by way of the Romance languages, and arrived around 1700 — long after people had been reclining on couches. Egyptian beds with animal legs, the Greek kline of the symposium, the three couches of a Roman dining room, the oak bench of a medieval hall and the velvet state couches of the Stuart court all sit behind the piece of furniture we now take for granted.

This site follows that story chronologically. Each period page covers the same four things so they can be compared: how the frame was built and joined, what the seat was stuffed with, what it was covered in and why, and the design ideas that arrived, faded or stuck. Significant milestones — the first fixed upholstery, the Knole sofa, the coil spring, the Chesterfield, the three-piece suite, foam, the 1988 fire regulations, the electric recliner — are flagged where they happen.

Where a historical form has a direct descendant still being made, we show the two side by side. The comparisons are there to make the lineage visible, not to sell anything: the point is to see a 1640 ratchet arm or a 1690 stud line survive into a sofa you could sit on this afternoon.

Facts and object details are drawn from museum and heritage collection records — the V&A, the National Trust, the British Museum, the Museum of the Home, the Metropolitan Museum and the Royal Collection — and each page lists its sources.