The Vantelle Settee | Antique Eastlake Settee, Velvet

Whether it stands in an entry, along a passage, or at the foot of a bed, the settee works through position and orientation within the room rather than by filling it. Its breadth and single arm read along a wall or across a corner, and the casters let it be moved and re-set as the room asks.

• Type: Settee; asymmetrical single-arm form

• Style: Eastlake (Aesthetic Movement)

• Date: Circa 1885–1900

• Origin: Not established (unmarked)

• Material: Hardwood frame; brass-collared casters

• Finish: Refinished in restoration; deep grey-brown tone

• Construction: Turned and carved hardwood frame; ring-turned legs; spindle-and-ball gallery; casters

• Maker & Origin: Unattributed; no mark located

• Condition: Restored; frame refinished, seat and back reupholstered, internal seat materials retained; sound and usable

• Dimensions: 36 W × 21 D × 36 H in.; seat height 17½ in.

• Upholstery: Tiano Gunmetal printed jacquard velvet, Black Edition, fully recovered (see The Tiano Gunmetal Velvet)

• Original: The frame structure and proportions are retained, with no evidence of rebuilt joinery. The internal seat materials were kept rather than renewed; the seat carries a depression formed through long use, preserved as a record of that use. The casters appear original.

• Replaced: The show cover. The seat and back were recovered in the velvet detailed under The Tiano Gunmetal Velvet; the internal materials beneath were retained.

• Reconstructed: No elements were reconstructed.

• Repaired: No structural repair was needed beyond the finish and upholstery work below.

• Finish Work: The frame was refinished: the surface was stripped and renewed in a deep grey-brown tone. Dents and other marks of age remain visible beneath the new finish.

Here the settee's asymmetry comes into focus: a full upholstered arm on one side, answered by a low, open gallery on the other. The gallery is built from turned spindles carrying ball turnings, arranged in two rows of three and framed by reeded uprights and scrolled ear brackets. Opposite, the arm rises as a scrolled, carved support to a rolled, upholstered rest.

Stick-and-ball turnery of this kind recurs in Eastlake furniture, where open turned galleries stand in for solid panels and let negative space register across the form. The gallery is at once decorative and structural, and it carries no mechanism.

No maker's mark, label, or stamp has been located, so the piece is left unattributed rather than assigned. The form belongs to the Anglo-American Aesthetic Movement, the reform style popularized through Charles Eastlake's writing on household furnishing and produced on both sides of the Atlantic. Its incised geometric carving, the stick-and-ball gallery, and the angular bracketing are consistent with American Eastlake manufacture of the 1880s and 1890s, and the circa 1885–1900 date rests on these stylistic and constructional features rather than on documentation. Because the form was made in more than one country and no mark is present, the country of manufacture is not established.

The frame is a close, straight-grained hardwood, its grain visible along the exposed edges. Walnut and ash were both common for furniture of this style, so with the species unconfirmed it is left unnamed. The front legs are ring-turned and set on brass-collared casters. Across the crest rail, the arm support, and the leg blocks runs incised geometric ornament: chip-carved bands, scalloped wave motifs, dot-and-line registers, and small rectilinear panels. The turned spindle gallery is described under The Spindle Gallery and Single Arm.

The covering was chosen for this restoration and is not original to the settee. Tiano is a printed jacquard velvet whose small geometric repeat runs in layered tones of charcoal, slate, bronze, and softened metallics; depth is achieved through tonal variation rather than contrast, so the surface reads as continuous, and the pile carries a controlled luster that responds to light without gloss. Its geometry sits with the incised geometric carving of the frame.

• Manufacturer: Black Edition

• Collection: Nuala

• Pattern: Tiano, colorway Gunmetal

• Design style: Geometric

• Fabric type: Printed jacquard velvet

• Composition: 58 percent polyester, 42 percent viscose; pile 100 percent viscose (as stated by the manufacturer)

• Performance: Martindale 40,000 rubs; suitable for high-use upholstery, including everyday seating

• Certifications: Oeko-Tex Standard 100; REACH compliant; PFAS free

• Textile origin: United Kingdom (Black Edition)

• Reupholstered: Yes; seat and back recovered in this restoration, internal seat materials retained

Asymmetrical single-arm settees like this one were familiar fixtures in late-Victorian parlors and halls. Scaled for two and set on casters, they helped organize movement and conversation within a room rather than anchoring a fixed axis. This example was acquired from a private home in Port Hueneme, Ventura County, California, together with the matching pair of Eastlake side chairs known as the Caligo Twins, offered separately. During restoration, the frame was refinished and the seat and back were reupholstered, while the original interior seat materials were intentionally retained. The worn depression in the seat remains as the clearest surviving record of decades of everyday use. Its maker, precise date of manufacture, country of manufacture, and earlier ownership remain undocumented. The record ends where the evidence ends.

Is this an antique or a vintage settee? Antique. This antique Eastlake settee dates to circa 1885–1900 on the evidence of its style and construction, which places it past the one-hundred-year threshold Acanthus uses rather than in the vintage range. No mark fixes the year, so the date is an informed estimate, not a documented one.

Has it been restored or reupholstered? Both. The frame was refinished, its surface stripped and renewed in a deep grey-brown tone, and the seat and back were recovered in a Black Edition velvet. The internal seat materials were deliberately kept, so the seat retains a depression from earlier use. The structure and proportions were left unchanged.

What wood is the frame? The frame is a hardwood with a close, straight grain visible along the exposed edges. Walnut and ash were both common in Eastlake seating of this period, but the species has not been confirmed, so following house practice it is left unnamed.

Can the velvet take everyday use? Yes. The covering is Tiano in the Gunmetal colorway, a printed jacquard velvet from Black Edition's Nuala collection, chosen because its geometry sits with the incised carving of the frame. The manufacturer rates it at 40,000 Martindale rubs, suitable for high-use upholstery, including everyday seating.