![LOVE SEAT MET sf68](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/LOVE_SEAT_MET_sf68.70.13.jpg)
A loveseat can be one of two styles of two-seat
chair
A chair is a type of seat, typically designed for one person and consisting of one or more legs, a flat or slightly angled seat and a back-rest. They may be made of wood, metal, or synthetic materials, and may be padded or upholstered in vario ...
.
One form – also known as "British two-seaters" – is essentially synonymous with "two-seat
couch
A couch, also known as a sofa, settee, or chesterfield, is a cushioned item of furniture for seating multiple people (although it is not uncommon for a single person to use a couch alone). It is commonly found in the form of a bench with uph ...
". It typically has two
upholstered
Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something.
''Upholstery'' comes from the Middle English word ...
seats.
Another form, variously also known as a
tête-à-tête, courting bench, kissing bench, gossip's chair, or conversation bench, is any form of two-seat furniture where the two seats are arranged in an S shape, so that two persons can converse while looking at each other and being within arm's reach, while at the same time typically retaining a modest barrier between them.
History
While chairs wide enough to seat multiple people are not a novel concept, wide upholstered chairs intended for one person became popular towards the end of the 1700s to accommodate the wider dresses in fashion then, and these began to be marketed and sold as "loveseats" in the early 1800s.
The tête-à-tête style loveseat became popular in the Victorian era, and the design may have initially arisen in France.
Straight fronted two-seaters or loveseats
File:Canapé executé pour Mr. le Comte de Bielenski, from 'Oeuvre de Juste Aurele Meissonnier' MET DP830899.jpg, French two-seater seettee, Paris, 1735, print, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...
.
Giles grendey, divanetto, londra 1740-50 ca.jpg, British two-seater, London, 1740/1750, Cincinnati Art Museum
The Cincinnati Art Museum is an art museum in the Eden Park neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1881, it was the first purpose-built art museum west of the Alleghenies, and is one of the oldest in the United States. Its collection of ov ...
.
File:Mobiliário artístico - Sophá causeuse (Zeferino José Pinto).jpg, ''Confidante'',confidante
in the Getty art & architecture Thesaurus. two-seater with triangular seats at either end, before 1897, rococo revival style, Portugal.
S-shaped two-seaters or tête-à-tête seats
Image:Love_seat - garden furniture cropped.jpg, Tête-à-tête garden seats.
Image:Sofa dali.jpg, A contemporary tête-à-tête sofa.
References
Couches
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