![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/sofa1.jpg\")
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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nThere are six in all illustrated in the book, but these give you a good idea\nof the type of furniture that JA writes about in Chapter 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is what Hepplewhite had to say about sofas: Here is Plate 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I should imagine the sofa was something like these above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As to the situation with regard to lighting, Ellen Moody in her Chronology\nfor Mansfield Park, estimates that this scene in takes place at the end of\nJuly. Even though it was a summer\u2019s evening, between ten and eleven o\u2019clock, it\nwould still be dark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Fanny, away from the main lighting in the room may indeed be hidden in\nthe shadows on the sofa. Now, as to whether it is deliberate slacking, or just\nbecause she is exhausted with a headache that she is hidden in the shadows, I\nleave you to determine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trying to envisage lighting in these rooms from our perspective, is rather\ndifficult when we are used to the brilliance of modern electrical lighting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Do take a look at this interesting picture dating from 1820 by Henry\nSargent, of a tea party in New York.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a very rare illustration of lighting characteristic in a house at\nthat time and it shows how guests would have used a formally arranged room. The\nlight sources are the branches of candles arranged on brackets or torcheres.\nCandles in candlesticks are placed near overmantle looking glasses to multiply\nthe light, and there is also light from the fires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now, applying this to the long room at Mansfield, I’m not sure that the\nfires would have been lit in Mansfield Park on a night at the end of July, so I\nthink it safe to assume that the only source of light in that long room would\nhave been candles. Here is another picture of a more modest establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is a drawing by John Harden; one of a series showing how people used to group themselves in their rooms according to light and heat sources. They are the equivalent of a modern day snap shot and I find them fascinating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the sadly missed John Cornforth wrote about these pictures in his book\nEnglish Interiors1798-1848: The Quest for Comfort:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Few pictures illustrate so graphically the lighting of rooms at that\nperiod. They also show the mobility of furniture and the way an informal\nimpression arose from picking up sewing tables and placing them where needed.<\/em> The picture above shows that ladies were able to sew in this type of light.\nObviously it depended on the eyesight of the individual, but yes, it could be\ndone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think that P2 and S+S2 did a very good job of showing just how little\nlight as available in the evenings in these rooms, unless chandeliers were\ninvolved and a place was very brightly lit for an assembly or rout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In chapter 7 Fanny has the headache and is caught out by Mrs Norris for lying on the sofa. Here is a post from the L&T archives. Here are three examples of sofas taken from the noted furniture designer, George … Continue reading
\nPlates 21, 22, 23, 24 present four designs for sofas; the woodwork of which\nshould be either mahogany or japanned, in accordance to the chairs; the\ncovering must also be of the same.
\nThe dimensions of sofas vary according to the size of the room and pleasure of\nthe purchaser.
\nThe following is the proportion in general use: length between 6 and 7 feet,\ndepth about 30 inches, height of the seat frame 14 inches; total height in the\nback 3 feet 1 inch.
\nPlate 25 shews a design for a sofa of the newest fashion; the frame should be\njapanned with green on white ground, and the edges gilt, the covering of red\nMorocco leather<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/sofa3.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/sofa4.jpg\")
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\nYou can see from this picture that there are pockets of very dark areas (see\nthe centre of the room pictured) and it is no doubt that poor Fanny became\ninvisible and forgotten taking rest on the sofa after her exhausting day in the\nhot sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/pemberley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/sofa5.jpg\")
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John Harden was a gentleman and a talented amateur artist who was on friendly terms with many professional artists such as John Constable. In 1803 he married the daughter of an Edinburgh banker and in 1804 took the lease of Brathay Hall in Westmoreland. His drawings, which date from 1804 show how active an early 19th century family could be – reading, writing, painting, sewing, often grouped around a table, particularly at night when they could share the light of the candles reinforced by the light from the fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nPage 132.<\/p>\n\n\n\n