Is It Under the Couch? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Settee

Settees were first produced in France and then England in the late 1600s. The settee is characterized by a high back with padding and padding on the arms. It is believed that the word "settee" and the origin of the furniture derive from an earlier type of seating called a "settle". Settles were wood seating boxes without padding. Settees will typically have either two or three seats and reflect a stylish formality.

So is the breadbox under the settee? Well let's get a few ground rules down first. A simple wood breadbox (available on Amazon.com for $18.95) is 16 inches (40.60 cm) tall. Many settees have a seat height greater than 16 inches and require no skirt or cross-bar that hangs down across the seat frame. So if you have a settee style couch, your breadbox could be underneath.

Answer: 20th Century

Thomas Lawson was a banker and author who lived in Boston Massachusetts from 1857-1925. Lawson was a stock speculator who profited greatly from the boom of the 1890s. Lawson built a massive Gilded Age mansion named Dreamworld. Lawson liked his comforts and his sofa was no exception. The couch style that bears his name has thickly padded rolled arms and large loose back cushions.

Yes, yes nice couch. I am sure it is very comfortable but can it hide a breadbox? The answer is probably no; thus, the Lawson is not a good candidate for a hidden breadbox. Despite the bulk of the overall piece of furniture, Lawson sofas usually have low, thick undercarriages and short legs.

Answer: Juliette Recamier

The Recamier sofa is named for the Parisian social host and beauty Jeanne-Françoise Julie "Juliette" Adélaïde Récamier. Mme. Recamier hosted artists and social communitarians at her home in Paris during the tumultuous times of the French Revolution and Napoleonic Periods. Mme. Recamier's leanings towards the French liberals led to her exile from Paris by Napoleon I in 1805. In addition to the David portrait in the Louvre, there is an 1805 painting by Baron François Gérard showing Mme. Recamier sitting on the eponymous couch hanging in the Paris Carnavalet Museum.

The Recamier couch is a form of daybed, a chaise longue style sofa that, preferably, has no back and includes two raised ends that are perfect for reclining while wearing the long flowing dress style popular during Mme. Recamier's life. Lounge type couches similar to the Recamier have been used for centuries dating back as far as the 1st Egyptian Dynasty (3100 BC).

The low foot and seat height of the Recamier couch make it a very unlikely style of couch for hiding a breadbasket. Best we keep looking.

Answer: Camel-back

The camel-back couch makes its first appearance in Thomas Chippendale's renowned English Rococo style book "The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director". The first edition of the "Director" was published in 1754 but did not contain the fully developed version of the camel-back style of couch. Rather the early Chippendale couch had a slight rise in the middle reflecting a more subdued approach to design. As Chippendale refined his style, the couch design became more pronounced and flamboyant.

A camel-back style couch has an elegant sloping back rising high in the middle, with subtly rolled and upholstered arms. These seats are completely upholstered, stuffed and soft. The legs came in a variety of wood leg shapes. While the seat cushions are soft, the back bolster is tightly covered in fabric. Despite the presence of the thick padded seat cushions, the camel-back couch was designed to have visible wooden legs. As such, the normal seat height of a camel-back couch is at least 17", which does provide sufficient room for your breadbox to use as a hiding place.

Answer: Commissioned by Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield

The Chesterfield couch was first produced in the 1700s in England. The couch was historically made from quality bovine leather with equal height in the back and sides. The leather is tufted with deep buttons in a decorative pattern across both the back and arms. Legend suggests that Phillip Stanhope, the Fourth Earl of Chesterfield, commissioned the new couch style to permit gentleman to sit upright comfortably and not wrinkle their clothes. Earl Chesterfield was an accomplished gentleman of his day and known for setting trends. The Earl would be happy to know that the Chesterfield style couch remains popular and a classic statement of good taste.

Our erstwhile breadbox, however, would not be so happy to encounter a Chesterfield couch. Chesterfields generally come with shorter thick legs, low seat height and a front panel to support the undercarriage. The open space under the couch is normally limited to no more than a few inches. As timeless and classic as the Chesterfield style is, if this is your couch, there is no breadbox hiding underneath.

Answer: Tuxedo style couch

The Tuxedo style couch is thought to have been developed in New York in the early 1920s as a modern update on the Chesterfield style. Tuxedo couches share the Chesterfield symmetry of equal height for sides and back, but differ markedly on cushioning and materials. Where Chesterfields have heavily cushioned backs and arms, the Tuxedo style has no attached cushion on the back and little or no padding on the arms. Tuxedo couches may come in leather, but are often made from other fabrics and without the button tufting on the back that is common on Chesterfields.

The legs on a Tuxedo style sofa are not an essential part of the design and will vary considerably depending on when the sofa was designed and manufactured. The pictured Tuxedo style couch has little undercarriage but shorter legs creating a small open space that is less vertically than 17", which is not ideal for a breadbox to hide under.

Answer: Leap like a goat

"Cabrioler" and thence Cabriole derive from the French word for something that jumps like a goat. Both the chair leg design and the couch style first became fashionable in France during the 18th Century reign of Louis XV. Cabriole couches are marked by their elegant flowing arms that curve around to the back of the sofa in a continuous line. A Cabriole sofa often has wood trim along the top and bottom of the piece to emphasize the shape. Frequently the Cabriole couch design will incorporate the Cabriole leg/foot design for as a further accent point.

Cabriole couches have graced Parisian salons and living rooms across the globe for centuries. The seat is set at standard height and can vary from a low of 17" to larger designs that come in at 22". The classic Cabriole couch has a wood trim along the bottom with an open space below the solid wood frame. You can definitely consider this style of couch to be prime breadbox hiding material.

Answer: Daybed

The daybed can be found in use by the Ancient Egyptians and Romans. Romans frequently used their loungers to eat upon as well as entertain. The enduring characteristics of the daybed carry into the modern era as well. The elements of a daybed are quite simple. The design starts with a flat upholstered rectangle along the bottom that meets raised sides accented by upholstered pillows. Classical era daybeds did not have a back, though many modern styles of daybeds do incorporate a back. Daybeds have continued to evolve. Examples of classic daybeds include the Recamier sofa and the Méridienne (fainting couch). The popular "futon" bed and convertible sofa are also functionally varieties of daybeds. These styles of furniture serve as a couch and recliner chair during the day and can convert to a traditional reclining bed at night.

Daybeds vary in undercarriage look and measurement. The classic Victorian daybed had legs that raised the seat at a standard 16"-18" height. If the breadbox squeezed tightly, it might fit under a 19th Century style daybed. Many 20th-21st Century daybeds have a low seat height and convert to a low clearance undercarriage making them an unlikely candidate to hide the breadbox.

Answer: Chair-back Settee

Chair-back settees were essentially two or three chairs fused together by a common seat and melded middle back section. The chair-back settee style of couch first became popular in 18th Century England because it required fewer pillows and did not take up as much room when compared to the Chesterfield and camel-back sofas of the day. In addition to designing the camel-back sofa style, Thomas Chippendale created many of the iconic couches associated with the chair-back settee style.

This seat height and undercarriage design of the chair-back settee is determined by the dimensions of the relevant chair pattern used in the design. Many chair-back settees display ornate backs and detailed side arms with a lower than average seat height. The style does not favor a skirt as seen in the picture, but the classic Chippendale form does include a crossbar to stabilize the legs. There is room under the Chair-back settee for a determined breadbox to hide, but only if your couch does not have a crossbar.

Answer: Napoleon Bonaparte

Empire style furniture was popular during the reign of Napoleon Bonaparte as Emperor of France in the early 19th Century. The development of the style was motivated explicitly by political concerns. Napoleon's court believed that by comparing Napoleon to Augustus Caesar they could influence French thought to accept the empire over the republic without causing unrest. One method employed in this public opinion campaign was to introduce Roman-inspired design elements into French fashion and furniture styles. Later in the 19th Century, Empire style morphed into a more ornate Neoclassical style that became highly popular in the US during the latter part of the 19th Century.

Classic Empire style couches were large, with slightly higher than average seat heights that could be 20" or more. Most examples of Empire sofas do not contain either a skirt or crossbar. The ample room and comparisons to the great French Emperor would make a very attractive lure for your wayward breadbox.