With its serpentine or camel-back, rolled arms and serpentine front, this form was the most common sofa made in America in the second half of the eighteenth century. While it was most popular in Philadelphia it was also made in Newport and New York. See Downs, American Furniture: Queen Anne and Chippendale Periods (New York, 1952) figs. 274-275. One of the distinguishing features of the forms made in Philadelphia are the robust lines and downward sweep of the outscrolling arms. Philadelphia makers favored straight or tapered molded legs and a standard option were Marlboro feet. For a related form with peaked crest see lot 231 in this sale.

Similar examples include one in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art illustrated in Heckscher, American Furniture in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1985) p. 142, fig. 84; another example in the collection of the Winterthur Museum is illustrated in Downs, fig. 174. A third example shown in Comstock, American Furniture, (Pennsylvania, 1926) fig. 348 and a fourth example is illustrated in Warren, American Furniture at Bayou Bend (Houston, 1975) p. 53, fig. 96.