Are all of these actually Georgian?

No. A meaningful share are later revival work, listed as Georgian style, Georgian Revival, George II Revival or Chippendale revival, with dates running from the 1890s into the 1930s. The dated field is mostly a period label rather than a year. Georgian, 19th Century, Regency and 18th Century overlap heavily in it, and only around three dozen listings carry a clean year at all.

What shape turns up most often?

The camel back, a humped serpentine top rail, is named in fourteen titles and leads every other profile. After it come the open chair-back settees, where two, three or four chair backs are joined in a row, then scroll ends and wing backs.

Why are oak settles listed under sofas?

They're long seats for two or more, so they sit under the same heading. Settle, oak settle and bench together account for a substantial slice of what has sold on Sellingantiques. They come from a different world to the drawing room sofa: halls, inns and passages. Coachman's, night watchman's, night porter's, tavern and Gothic types all appear.

Which timbers do these frames use?

Mahogany leads, in roughly a third of titles, and oak follows some way behind. Walnut, rosewood, satinwood, fruitwood, pine and giltwood make smaller showings, and simulated rosewood, a cheaper timber grained to look the part, appears three times.

How often do Georgian sofas come up for sale?

Around twenty come to market in a year on Sellingantiques. Seventy-three different dealers have listed one, so this is furniture most dealers handle only occasionally rather than a stock line.

Do any carry a maker's name?

No. The evidence yields no maker candidates, and the two attribution-shaped titles are hedged with wording like possibly by and in the manner of. In the manner of is a reference to shape, not an attribution and not a date. Chippendale and Hepplewhite are used the same way, to describe an open back or a shield back.

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Antique Georgian Sofas

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A long seat for two or more, made for the eighteenth-century English drawing room, sold today alongside the plainer joined settles and benches that served halls and inns.