What is the difference between a settee and a sofa?

In these listings, none. Settee is the commoner word by a distance, appearing in roughly a third of titles, with sofa running throughout and couch used in a smaller group. The object stays the same: a long upholstered seat on a mahogany show frame. Dealers pick the word they prefer.

How old are most mahogany-framed sofas on the market?

The dated field spans 1750 to 1950, though only about four in ten listings carry a clean year. The rest use style labels, and 19th Century is the largest of those, followed by Victorian, Edwardian and Regency. Where decades are given, they gather in the 1880s, 1890s and 1900s, with earlier clusters in the 1850s and 1860s. The earliest dated examples are a George II child's settee and a country-house hall settle, both circa 1750. The latest is a Regency-revival chaise longue of 1950.

Is a chaise lounge the same as a chaise longue?

Yes. The evidence shows spelling variation and nothing more; around a fifth of the chaise titles use the second form. Both cover single- and double-ended reclining seats, and day beds sit in the same group.

Which mahogany sofas sell at the top of the range?

Eighteenth-century frames, particularly Chippendale-period camel-backs, along with sofas carrying a named workshop attribution. Scale matters too. Three- and four-seaters, country-house and billiard-room sofas sit high, as do pairs and full parlour suites.

Are these sofas always English?

Not always. Danish, Swedish Biedermeier, Dutch marquetry, Louis Philippe, Charles X and French Empire sofas all appear among the listings. They're a minority against the British bulk of the category, and regional British attributions such as Scottish or Irish show up only in isolated titles.

How often do mahogany sofas come up for sale?

About 88 a year come to market on Sellingantiques, and 171 different dealers have listed one. That spread means it's a form almost every general furniture dealer handles at some point, rather than the preserve of specialists.

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Antique Mahogany Sofas

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Upholstered seat furniture built on a show-wood mahogany frame, made for drawing rooms, parlours and bedrooms, from short window seats and chaise longues up to full-length country-house sofas.