Furniture

Sofas

The sofa is the commonest piece of traditional Cretan furniture and is found almost everywhere. In the poorest areas it is replaced by a stone bench covered with two or three strips of coloured cloth. Sofas are found on the Aegean islands but are rare in other parts of Greece, especially on the mainland. We do not know their origin, but they may be derived from ancient couches, as their length and use for rest and sleeping attest.

General features

Function of the sofa

The sofa is found in a prominent position in the main room, a multi-purpose area on the ground floor of the house. A table is placed in front of the sofa, with the chairs and armchair on the opposite side. The sofa is used by the housewife and her daughters for various household tasks and for seating any female visitors. Small children also sit there until they come of age.

As the sofa is used by women all day long, it cannot be used by the men, who sit on chairs instead. The sofa was once also used for storage, as the section under the seat was a deep chest for storing grain and legumes, or woven household fabrics in richer households. In families with many children, the adult girls slept with their mother in the marriage bed while the master of the house used the sofa. The seat is covered with a mattress and special decorated sofa covers known as kanapelikia. Cushions to support the back are not used in Crete.

General form

Sofas are made exclusively of cypress wood, which is light and soft to work. This is usually finished with cassia or other stains to make it darker in colour. Sofas are over two metres long and always have two armrests. There are trunk sofas and sofas with board seats.

Dimensions

Cretan sofas are 210 to 300 cm long.

• Seat height: 49 cm.
• Seat width: 61-74 cm.
• Back height: 80-100 cm.
• Armrest height: 67-85 cm.
• Armrest length: 62-70 cm.

Decorative Typology

Sofas have very little decoration except the designs on the upper back.

Back uprights

The ends are usually in the shape of a stylized eagle’s head or a diamond.

Back

There is a great variety of sofa backs. The upper board may be carved into a curved shape with reliefs in its centre. The back is comprised of the following elements:

• a straight, relatively wide board supported by the back uprights.
• a second, narrower board may be set parallel to the above.
• apart from the corner uprights, the board may be supported by up to three vertical boards fixed to the seat.
• an applied decoration in a variety of shapes may be attached to the crest.

Armrests

The arms are straight with simple protruding ends like those found on some armchairs, with a notch in the underside. On rare occasions, the armrests may be joined to the seat with horizontal wooden braces.

There are also turned armrests or front uprights, a common feature of Aegean cabinet-making.

Historical Evidence – Conclusions

As mentioned in the introduction to this section, traditional sofas are the commonest piece of furniture in the Cretan home and found in far greater numbers than chairs. This choice is based on the multiple uses of the sofa, its low cost because of the cheap wood used, and its longevity due to the fact that it is not moved around the house. Its function as a storage chest, seat and bed also made it an indispensable piece of household furniture.

In conclusion, we note that Byzantine decoration has set its seal on this type of seat too, the sign of a dominant civilization.