Illus. 201.—Pine Settle, Eighteenth Century.
Illustration [202] shows a settle of oak, which has upon the back the carved date 1708. The front of the seat has four panels, while the back has five lower panels, with a row of small panels above. The top rail is carved in five groups, the middle design of each group being a crown, and between each small panel is a turned ornament. The arms are like the arms of the wainscot chairs in Illustration [124] and Illustration [125]. The top of the seat does not lift up, as was often the case, disclosing a box below, but is fastened to the frame, and probably there were provided for this settle the articles often mentioned in inventories, “chusshings,” “quysyns,” or cushions, which the hard seat made so necessary. This settle belongs to Dwight Blaney, Esq., of Boston.
Illus. 202.—Oak Settle, 1708.
The word “settee” is the diminutive of “settle,” and the long seat which corresponded to the chairs with the frame of turned wood was called a settee or small settle, being of so much lighter build than the settle.
Illus. 203.—Settee covered with Turkey work, 1670-1680.
Illustration [203] shows a settee owned by the Essex Institute of Salem, and said to have been brought to this country by a Huguenot family about 1686. It is upholstered, like the chairs of the same style, in Turkey work, the colors in which are still bright. Turkey work was very fashionable at that time, rugs being imported from Turkey in shapes to fit the seat and back of chairs or settees.