Object Spotlight Holiday Edition: Settee Bedstead
During the Christmas season, Mount Vernon was crowded with the Washingtons’ friends and relatives who traversed poor roads and perilous rivers to celebrate alongside the president and Martha Washington. The presence of so many extra guests made sleeping accommodations tight, and the Washingtons turned to the eighteenth-century version of the sofa bed: the settee bedstead.
During the day, the settee bedstead provided comfortable seating. At night, however, the seat came off, a bed frame was pulled out from the interior, and the seat back was lifted to form a canopy, complete with curtains that encircled the head of the sleeper, something akin to a regular canopy bed.
The term metamorphic or deception furniture is used to describe pieces such as this, because of their ability to change shape. Like the modern sofa bed, the settee bedstead was perfect for small spaces since it combined two kinds of furniture in one compact form.
George Washington purchased a “Setee bed and furniture” in 1774 from an estate sale at Belvoir, the plantation that belonged to his neighbors and friends, George William and Sally Fairfax. The inventory taken after Washington’s death records a settee bedstead in Mount Vernon’s Little Parlor — a room that served as the family’s informal gathering space and also housed Nelly Custis’s harpsichord. George Washington Parke Custis purchased his grandfather’s settee bedstead in 1802, but unfortunately we do not know what happened to it after that.
Settee bedsteads are extremely rare and one similar to Washington’s is on exhibit at Mount Vernon today. Made sometime between 1760 and 1780 the replacement, like the original, was likely constructed in England and shipped to the colonies since there is no evidence that this kind of metamorphic bed was ever produced in colonial America.
Visitors can see the settee bedstead fully opened and ready for overnight guests in the Little Parlor as part of the Christmas at Mount Vernon holiday celebration through Jan. 6.
Object Spotlight is a regular feature on George Washington Wired that highlights some of the household belongings that Washington came into contact with in his daily life.
Settee bedstead: Purchased by the MVLA through the generosity of Mount Vernon Friends of the Collection in 2002; 2002.007.001
