The baronial settee, designed in the early 19th century 'antique' manner with cippus-like pediments to the back and arm-pilasters is richly embellished in the Gothic manner. The pediment and pilasters are enriched with a cusped-arch tracery and roundels while the rails are carved with an entwined-stem guilloche with quatrefoiled leaves and the back terminates with leaf and berry finials. Its ornament derives from patterns in the 'Gothic or Old English fashion' illustrated by George Smith, 'Upholder Extraordinary' to George, Prince of Wales, later King George IV, in his Collection of Designs for Household Furniture, 1808. Concerning a 'hall sofa' he commented that 'where the pattern is Gothic... oak [rather than mahogany] is used with great propriety; while concerning a 'state bed', he wrote 'There is no kind of work better calculated to produce a grand effect, so far as relates to furniture, than what is usually called Gothic ... [as it admits] of a more abundant variety of ornaments and forms than can possibly be obtained in any other style' (ibid., pls. 35 & 228). A Gothic sofa combined with classical features appeared in his 1826 publication 'Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer's Guide, pl. CLI. The couch form also relates to that of a 'tête à tête' seat' engraved by Smith in 1826, pl. LXXXI
The stylised Gothic foliage corresponds to patterns published by the architect Lewis Nockalls Cottingham in his Ornamental Metal Worker's Director, 1823, and Working Drawings of Gothic Ornaments, 1824