Settee (Confidante) (part of a set)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This type of sofa originated in mid-eighteenth-century France. George Hepplewhite illustrated a similar confidante in the 1788 edition of his Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, where he stated in the caption that "an elegant drawing room…is scarce complete with a confidante." Formerly at the Morant family seat at Brokenhurst Park, Hampshire.

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art