Twig Settee (Rustic Settee)

ca. 1855-1870

This Twig settee, listed in period catalogs as a Rustic settee, imitated popular wooden furniture of sticks and tree branches made for gardens in the second half of the nineteenth century. They were first made in England and Scotland and by 1850 were being made in the United States. They were made well into the 1890s by all the major cast iron companies and many of the smaller regional companies. Many settees were also sold with matching chair sets.

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[1] Israel, Barbara Antique Garden Ornament: Two Centuries of American Taste. (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1999), 172.
[2] Metropolitan Museum of Art. 19th-century American Furniture and other Decorative Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York. 1970.