A Brief History Of Sofas
Posted: Monday, February 15, 2010
by Annie Deakin
Annie Deakin
A brief history of sofas highlights the characteristics and attributes of a piece of household furniture that has become practically indispensable in our modern era. It's a sure bet that people spend more time on a sofa -- or its cousin, the couch -- and on just about any other piece of furniture other than the bed. It is surely something that provides a lot of comfort and also style.
By the year 1450, the English had developed a piece of household furniture they referred to as a couch. At that time, nobody in the English speaking world had heard of the term sofa. The French, on the other hand, knew the word 'couch, ' but preferred to call their version of the thing a 'canape.' Those who are familiar with finger foods know that the word canape in English means something different.
Sometime in the 17th century, elites in Europe again fascinated with just about everything to do with the Orient. Travelers to that region -- and Arabia, in particular, brought back the Arabic word 'suffah, ' which was used to describe a reclining bench that was long in length. It was on these suffahs that wealthy people in that region sat to drink their very strong coffee.
As to the suffah-cum-sofa, that particular piece of furniture had been around for thousands of years. Ancient Greek and Roman men used to lounge on the things when they took their leisure and ate their dinners. And it was only men who were allowed to sit on a sofa; women had to sit on the Greek or Roman version of the chair in order to eat or take their leisure.
It wasn't until the late 1500s that the style of sofa that we think of as 'modern' came into being. It was at that time that craftsmen began to pad wooden frames with various natural materials -- which was an innovation pioneered by the Germans -- or with mosses that had been dried and cured. This particular form of padding was particularly popular with the English. Seats and backs were also wrapped in other materials.
After wrapping, the whole sofa was covered in various rich fabrics. Early sofas of this sort were pretty costly, and it was usually only the very rich or royalty that could afford them. Naturally enough, the advent of the Industrial Revolution brought the cost of a sofa down to a price point that could be afforded by almost every middle-class or even lower class person.
From there, in the 19th and 20th centuries, sofas came to be increasingly associated with the middle classes and their families. They are so ubiquitous today, in fact, that the first piece of furniture most people think of obtaining after a bed is, of course, a sofa. They are an integral part of the family socializing unit these days, and people spend endless hours on them, too.
Annie is an expert furniture and interior design writer. Her current area of specialism is oak dining table, sofa sale and table sale
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