This belongs to a distinct group of Chinese seat furniture made in Canton specifically for export to the West. Distribution was largely confined to the towns of Philadelphia, Boston, Salem and Providence, Rhode Island. The group is distinguished by a repeated use of carved rosettes, usually in combination with outscrolled arms, in a style broadly derived from the designs of George Hepplewhite in his A Cabinet-Maker's and Upholsterer's Guide, 1794. An almost identical settee from the collection of the Rev. John Codman at the Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities, Codman House, Lincoln, Massachusetts is illustrated in C.L. Crossmann, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, 1991, p. 246, pl.131. A similar settee is visible in a fascinating contemporary gouache study of a Cantonese cabinetmaker's shop in the collection of Benjamin Ginsburg (op.cit.pp.241,pl.92). A related daybed with drawers in the base was sold in these Rooms, 9 October 1993, lot 269.