Antique French Sofas between £0 and £0
A French canapé or settee is a two-seat upholstered bench with its carved wooden frame left on show, made for the salon rather than for slumping in.
What They Are
The canapé took shape in 18th-century France as salon seating: a seat for two or more, upholstered, with the frame carved and exposed rather than hidden under fabric. Its Louis XV and Louis XVI patterns were revived and copied in quantity through the 19th and early 20th centuries, and that revival work is the bulk of what comes up for sale.
What you'll meet most often is a carved-frame two-seat settee in 19th-century French taste. "Settee" appears in around a fifth of titles on Sellingantiques, walnut in a fifth, Louis in a sixth. Small is the default size: seat and seater terms turn up in eighty-nine titles, while "three" appears in only nine. Giltwood and gilt terms cover about a tenth, painted frames a little under that.
Around the main strand sit related forms in the same taste. Chaises longues, day beds and méridiennes, made for reclining rather than sitting. Empire and Napoleon III sofas in mahogany or ebonised wood, some ormolu-mounted or swan-necked. Salon suites where the sofa comes with its matching chairs. Odd single forms surface too: a crapaud tub, a duchesse brisée, an Art Deco palisander sofa.
Dating is loose across the category. The dated field runs 1800 to 1930, but a third of listings carry nothing more precise than "19th Century" or "Victorian". Where decades are given they cluster in the 1880s, 1890s, 1900s and 1920s. Eighteenth-century pieces appear in eleven titles only, and a good deal of what's labelled Louis XV or Louis XVI is openly described as style or revival.
What Separates Them
Frame treatment does most of the work. Carved giltwood and parcel-gilt frames, often in Louis XV or Louis XVI style, sit toward the top of the range, while the plain walnut sofa with little carving to look at gathers at the bottom. Surface counts alongside it: sofas keeping original paint or original paintwork are listed well up the range.
Date claimed pulls hard in both directions. The handful of 18th-century and early 19th-century pieces sit high, and the Louis XV style sofas dated to the 1920s and 1930s sit low. Since a clean year is the exception in this category, the wording of a date is often all there is to go on.
Then scale, sets and covering. Large sofas, pairs and five-piece salon suites are priced above the single small settee, and "small" recurs low. Aubusson, needlepoint, tapestry, toile de Jouy and antique silk coverings push a piece upward; a plain modern cover doesn't. Ten listings include reupholstery in the price, a habit almost unique to this category.
Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for french sofas between £0 and £0, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Canape comes from the Greek konops, a mosquito. A konopeion was a couch hung with netting, long before the word meant a bite of bread.
The Antique French Sofas between £0 and £0 Glossary
- Canapé
- French for a settee or sofa with a show-wood frame. It appears in fifty-two titles, used more or less interchangeably with sofa.
- Settee
- The commonest word in these titles, covering a two- or three-seat upholstered seat regardless of style.
- Giltwood
- Carved wood covered in gesso and gold leaf. Giltwood, gilt wood and gilt together account for around a tenth of titles.
- Parcel-gilt
- Only parts of the frame gilded, usually set against paint. It turns up on painted-and-gilt sofas.
- Bergère
- Enclosed sides, upholstered or caned. Used here of sofas as well as chairs, in fourteen titles.
- Corbeille
- A basket-shaped sofa with a curved back, named for the shape. A handful of titles use the term.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a canapé?
It's the French term for a settee or sofa with a carved, exposed wooden frame. The form took shape in 18th-century France as salon furniture.
In listings the word is used much like sofa. Fifty-two titles on Sellingantiques carry canapé or a shortened spelling of it.
Are these sofas usually two-seaters?
Two seats is the default. Seat and seater terms appear in eighty-nine titles, and "three" shows up in only nine.
Sizes skew small generally. The word "small" appears about as often as "large" across the category.
Which woods and finishes turn up most?
Walnut leads, in about a fifth of titles, often carved. Giltwood, gilt wood and gilt cover roughly a tenth, and painted frames a little less.
Mahogany and ebonised frames appear on the Empire and Napoleon III side. Species such as beech, cherry, rosewood and fruitwood surface only a few times each.
Does Louis XVI mean the sofa is 18th century?
Not on its own. Much of what carries a Louis XV or Louis XVI label is described as style or revival, made during the 19th or early 20th century.
Genuine 18th-century claims are scarce, appearing in eleven titles out of 532. Louis XVI alone accounts for forty-one titles.
Do any of these carry a maker's name?
No. Across 532 listings, not one maker's name emerges.
French seat furniture in this category is sold on style, timber and date. Only one piece carries a named house provenance, a giltwood canapé from Humewood Castle.
How many come up for sale each year?
Around fifty-two a year, and 128 different dealers have listed one.
That spread tells you it's a category almost every general furniture dealer touches at some point, rather than the preserve of a few specialists.