The sofa's name derives from Knole House in Sevenoaks, Kent, which is open to the public and run by the National Trust.
[5] A London furniture maker and upholsterer, Ralph Grynder, made couches for Henrietta Maria in the 1630s, and these were supplied with suites of matching chairs and stools with a canopy suspended above.
A portrait of Vere Egerton, Mrs William Booth, painted around 1619 at Dunham Massey, shows a red couch with a curtained canopy.
The exposed beech woodwork of the Knole Sofa has traces of original marbling and painted and gilded arabesque decoration.
[7] Thomas Capp was a specialist in painting furniture in this period who worked for Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, briefly a keeper of the Royal Wardrobe.